In 10 Months
by LittleGooseWalking
Summary: Olivia Dunham has never been scared of anything. But when the sun goes down, she is terrified. But only she can save them. End of the world fic. M for a reason  S,V,D  and chpt 16 has warnings.
1. Preface

_A/N: This is definitely out-of-canon but follows the main relationship lines of the show, but with some minor changes. _

_John Scott is still alive, but because of his betrayal, Olivia left him. _

_There is no Alternate Universe (well they haven't discovered it yet). _

_Charlie is still alive too._

_Any decent names for a title are greatly appreciated. I'm going with 'In 10 Months' until a better one is found._

**PREFACE**

**August 3****rd**** 2012**

"Hey, Olivia, look at me? Don't go to sleep, look at me!" Astrid's voice called to her.

Olivia Dunham. She never showed pain, she never showed weakness, she never gave up. The end of the world and ten months of surviving it can change a person.

Olivia was slumped over on the floor of the Walter's lab. Her back resting against the wall, her knees at her chest. Astrid was knelt at her feet, struggling to keep her awake.

"No, no, Astrid, let me sleep, please. I want to sleep." She begged her. But Astrid refused to let her. She wiped her forehead with a wet washer, stroking her cheek calmingly.

"Liv, sweetie, I need to you push now. Okay?" Astrid instructed. She had laid old clothing and towels down to make the floor more comfortable. Laying Olivia down as best she could, she knelt between her legs. The tattered ends of the blue dress Olivia worn, falling to her waist.

Olivia muffled a scream, "Ahhhhhh! It hurts, Astrid, make it stop!" she begged her as another contraction hit. Olivia was panting and sweating madly.

"Liv, there's no more painkillers, you'll have to tough it out, come on, just breathe. I need to you push, come on, Olivia." Astrid tried to keep a smile on her face, to reassure not only Olivia, but also herself. She was scared out of her mind about delivering the baby.

Astrid had read through whatever books on pregnancy remained in the decaying ruins of the library. Little information that had survived, told Astrid just enough to deliver the baby safely, but in their current situation, the baby was safer inside Olivia then in . . . in this horrid place the world had become. No child should be born into such a place.

"No, not yet. I'm so tired, Astrid." Olivia struggled in Astrid's arms. She looked over shoulder, out the broken window. The sun was setting and her eyes suddenly became wide with fear. "Astrid!" she called desperately.

"What, what's wrong sweetie?"

"Astrid, the sun!" Astrid followed Olivia's stare.

"Oh no!"

As the sun disappeared, and Boston was plunged into darkness, gunshots ringed out through the lab. The cry and howling of the creatures outside caused an already panicked Ella to start crying. Ella and Walter were huddled up in the office, Walter having wrapped a blanket around Ella to keep her warm. He started singing, trying to get her to fall asleep. It had started to work until a loud scream echoed down to the office from behind the doors to the lab. Ella crawled into Walter's arms. Walter had become a 'better man', he was more understanding, more thoughtful and cared dearly for Ella. Always talking to her, calming her, entertaining her.

The fire in the middle of the room flickered, giving the room an extra eeriness.

There was shouting and a tormenting silence, before Charlie Francis, John Scott and Peter Bishop crashed through the doors of the lab. They stood just feet from the door, guns armed, prepared to shoot whatever came through them.

"Where is he?" Peter yelled,

More gunfire erupted followed by the shrill cries of the creatures dying.

Seconds later Broyles dived through the door, sliding onto the floor, shooting several rounds at the looming creatures that stalked him. They shrieked as the bullets tore through their skin, backing off slightly; allowing Charlie and John enough time to deadlock and secure the door.

The creatures pounded on the door, like they did every night when the sun went down.

Peter immediately ran to Olivia's side, holding her hand. She squeezed it, hard, as another contraction shook through her delicate body.

Charlie did what he could, wiping her forehead, keeping her cool. Broyles and John stood guard, watching out the windows, watching the creatures do their usual hunt for anything moving, hunting for meat.

"There's more of them tonight." John noted aloud. There were at least a dozen circling the buildings.

"Well, we're probably the only people for miles; we're like a buffet for these . . . creatures. I mean, seriously, what the hell are they?" Charlie asked, turning towards Walter as he closed the door to the office with a now sleeping Ella.

"I believe these creatures are more evolved then their parents, the creature's that we first encountered." Walter began to explain, "They have developed more for hunting, and they have heightened senses and strategic attack methods. We can fight them off, but at the way they breed, we won't be able to out run them, unless we find a poison to kill them. Maybe some kind of gas . . . or, or liquid, in their drinking supply?" Walter began rambling several formulas.

"Hate to bust your mood Walter, but I have a baby trying to get out over here!" Olivia cried, she rubbed her large stomach, trying to calm the baby. She was determined to keep it in. Holding her legs to her chest again, breathing evenly.

It couldn't come out, not now, not just yet. She would make him wait until daylight, it wasn't safe, but it was safer than during the night.

"Oh, yes right, Agent Dunham." Walter said, suddenly remembering the pregnant blond women.

"John, third window!" Broyles shouted,

John ran to the third window from the left; a creature was peering through, clawing at the bars. He shot it, killing it with ease.

"You know, they're getting sloppy, or we're just getting better at killing them." John beamed. John had been happier killing the creatures; he was less aggravated towards Peter, and had backed off trying to get Olivia back, especially since she became pregnant.

John turned his back to the window, smiling widely at the group, bragging mentally about his 89th kill.

Olivia looked up at him, smiling. She then noticed two huge black eyes peering through the bars, glistening from the light of the small fire they had built.

"John!" she called to him, trying to warn him.

It was too late. Thick claws sliced through the gap in the bars, cutting into John's back, ripping his shirt and cutting deep into his flesh.

Broyles killed it instantly, and then firing warning shots out the window for other to hear. John's body slumped to the floor, blood pooling from his wounds in his back.

"Astrid, help him!" Peter ordered, taking over her position as she tended to John.

Astrid was the only one, other than Walter who knew how to properly tend to deep flesh wounds. She applied pressure, wrapping and bandaging what she could.

Olivia had gone from breaking Astrid's fingers, to Peter's, squeezing his hand as the 8th contraction in the last 10 minutes came.

"Peter! Peter, Peter, Peter! I think its coming. The baby, he's coming!" she was scared, more likely terrified. She was giving birth to a baby, in the middle of a lab, during the middle of the night, whilst being attacked by creatures determined to kill and eat them, after the world had ended, and now John gravely injured. She wondered, _Could the night get any worse? _

Olivia regretted the thought instantly. Something would definitely go wrong now.


	2. November 2011, 10 months Earlier

_A/N:I finished study early, so I thought I'd post this. _

_Okay, this chapter references 1x16 Unleashed, which is where the 'creatures' for this fic sort of originated from. This chapter is short, but it's meant to be an explanatory chapter. _

_**the way I've decided to write these is so that each chapter is a month of 2011, showing their survival, what happens...etc. _

**Chapter One **

**10 Months Earlier – November 2011**

Walter's lab was the safest place in Boston. Broyles had had a reinforced 12 inch steel door to replace the labs doors, and bars on all the windows after one of Walter's wacky experiments 'came to life' and injured Astrid and several students. Broyles wanted to make sure that none of the experiments got loose. So when the world ended, nothing could get in the lab.

At first it was just Peter, Olivia and Charlie. They had stayed in the FBI building when the creatures returned to Boston.

Almost everyone who ventured outside was attacked and killed. At least, being in an FBI building there were plenty of weapons, either in locked rooms or on the bodies of those who had fallen. Charlie was the first of the trio to venture outside. Olivia and peter followed next, but the 18 surviving FBI agents holed up. Charlie had told them to lock everything and seal themselves inside. They bolted the doors, blocking any access with furniture and traps. But they all knew, once the food ran out, they would have to venture outside.

The trio gathered food and water, and things they thought would be useful, lighters, clothing, weapons.

They explored the ruins that had claimed Boston, finding the bodies of many, and pieces of others. There were groups of survivors, mainly adults. The remains of the local school harboured dozens of bodies. Children. Upon seeing this, Olivia's first thoughts were of Ella, and Rachel. Had they survived? Will they survive until Olivia finds them?

Charlie eventually found John Scott and Broyles, when the trio separated in the hopes of finding anyone else.

They had been with Walter and Astrid at the lab, having locked themselves inside.

Ella was next. She had broken her arm and was crying profusely when Peter found her. She was slumped over her mother's body. Ella said that the creatures got Rachel while she protected Ella.

Now protected in the confines of the lab, Ella, Astrid, Walter, John, Charlie, Broyles, Peter and Olivia settled in for the long haul. No one knew how long they'd be there, how long they'd survive.

John and Broyles got a little trigger happy, managing to capture a creature for Walter to examine. Unfortunately, Walter didn't learn more than he had nearly 2 years ago.

2 Years Ago – 2010

With Charlie and John's help, Olivia and Peter managed to capture the _original_ creature. A hybrid of sorts. It was similar to the creature that had attacked Charlie, laying its offspring and nearly killing him. Walter believed this creature was created from the biological 'plans', as such, of that creature. Walter did several tests on the captured creature, learning that it was either a mutation or an evolution of the _Desmodus Rotundus_ (common vampire bat) combined with a _Hydrophis Belcheri _(Belcher's Sea Snake).

The sea snake's genetics was added to the bat, the bat being the 'base' creature. The snake allowed the creature to swim extremely well, able to survive long period's underwater, it also had poisonous venom, which combined with the bat's fangs, gave it an extra hunting ability. The creature got everything a Common Vampire Bat would have, Echolocation, the ability to fly, and its need for blood.

After interrogating its creator, Andy Norman, he revealed that the creature was created, raised and experimented in a near light-free lab. Because of bat's sensitivity to light, they thought it prudent to only use light that was necessary, when night-goggles didn't work.

The creature's had one weakness, light. Sunlight, UV light, torches, lamps, even fire. But with an 'allergy' (as Walter so colourfully put it) to light, that meant that once the sun went down, as soon as it became dark, no one was safe.

Broyles was having the creature moved to a secure location when it broke free, escaping.

The creature had made it as far Central Manchester before they managed to kill it. But not before it had bred, and those offspring reaching maturity in a matter of days, split off, roaming free.

The offspring then bred themselves, spreading further and further out into the world.

The first international incident was March 2010, 2 months after the original creature escaped. An office building in Ipswich, England was attacked, 89 employees were killed. From there, the creatures spread to Europe, Asia, South America and eventually Australia and Africa.

America had just been the starting point.

The world was reduced from billions to thousands by July 2011.

_A/N: Okay, so hope that was okay, short I know. I figure, I'll write what I can between exams, and free time, so I may be able to post another chapter by Wednesday _


	3. December 2011 part 1

**Chapter Two**

**Early December**

It had become common practise now, those able to explore would split up, scour the remains of Boston for survivors, food and water. But what few that they found were either near dead or in denial and refused to move. At the moment, fire was their only chance of survival, a slim chance but a chance nonetheless.

Peter and Olivia took the buildings near the lab, the apartments, offices. Charlie and John searched the buildings and homes further out, armed to the teeth with guns and a stack of fire lighters. Charlie had plans for a mini flamethrower. He needed aerosol cans and the long handle fire lighters. Attach the two to a gun and you've got your very own flamethrower.

Walter, Ella and Broyles remained in the lab, Broyles for their safety. Walter did his usual; pretending like nothing was different, like nothing had changed.

He went on experimenting. Since the attack, he had become extremely lucid. Rising up to the occasion, and doing everything he could to keep Ella entertained and safe. They has banded together, looking out for each other. Walter would create games and 'experiments' for Ella and Ella would tell him stories. Ella didn't like Walter's stories very much, she didn't think he told them well.

Eventually Charlie and John found a survivor.

"Okay this is Dylan. Found him wandering around about eight kilometres from here. Confused as hell. Probably in denial." Charlie stated,

A young man, followed slowly behind them. Staring at each Astrid, Walter, Olivia and Peter carefully.

Dylan was extremely agitated. He fidgeted, scratched his arms continuously and was mumbling incoherently.

Neither Olivia or Peter knew what to make of it. Everyone seemed to turn and be looking at Olivia, as if mentally saying in unison 'Do something'. She sighed in defeat. She approached the man, hands outstretched to show she meant no harm.

"Dylan? That's your name right?" she asked softly.

He looked at her, chewing his fingernails. He held out his right hand for a handshake, which Olivia took. He recoiled his hand immediately after, wrapping it around his chest. He looked around nervously. To him the lab probably looked like a torture chamber. Medical equipment everywhere, Walter's experiments...

Ella poked her small head out of the office door, hearing the commotion.

"Aunt Liv? What's wrong with that man? Why does he look so scared?" for a seven year old, she was quite smart.

"It's okay, sweetie. Charlie found him."

"Was he outside, with those creatures?"

"Yeah, they found him outside. He's seen terrible things. That's why he's scared." She said, she turned back to Dylan, "Am I right?"

He nodded. "First-first they . . . got Kate." He stuttered, trying to get the right words out "tore her up real good. Then Alex and Morgan. They were next. Sun had gone down and they were still outside. Waning food they did, Morgan always craved nut bars. Morgan said they'd be safe in the shadows, 'if you can't see them, they can't see you' as he would say. I tried to warn 'em. They liked the dark, hid in the shadows. Fire, that's what keeps 'em away."

Charlie caught on, "How'd you figure that out, Dylan?"

Dylan looked at him, "We's were running from 'em. We found a tunnel. Alex lit a stick or something so we'd see. We could see and hear them. Right next to us. But they kept away from the light. Afraid they were."

Charlie turned to Broyles. "I hope others out there figure that out too, soon, before more get hurt."

Dylan continued his story, "After Morgan and Alex, it was just me, Annie and Greg. We'd been at Alex's you see, when Boston got hit. Hadn't seen another soul since we stepped outside, till you's that is."

"What happened to Annie and Greg? You were alone when we found you?" John spoke up, having been silent throughout his story.

"'Bout 20 minutes before you came, we their nest."

"Nest?" Peter repeated, _That doesn't sound too good_ he thought.

"Yeah, A railway tunnel. There's a hole in the road 'bout 2 kilometres from where you found me. Greg fell down that. Fell straight into the tunnel. Said there were hundreds of them creatures. And they got him. I just ran. Annie and I, we got separated. I haven't seen her since."

"Well, we're going out again tomorrow, find more food-" Olivia started, but Dylan stopped her.

"NO! You can't go out there! It's not safe!" he exploded.

"It's okay, Dylan. We know more about these creatures then you'd think."

"You go out there, is like signing your own death certificate!"

"Don't worry, Dylan." Peter said, trying to calm him. "What does Annie look like, we can try search for her. She can't have gotten far."

Dylan explained what Annie looked like. She was 16 years old, petite, red hair, and bright blue eyes.

Broyles hurried him off to the office where he could change, clean up. The office was the only privacy they could get. A lock-able door, blinds on the office windows looking out onto the lab. Olivia had gone in there once or twice, just to be alone. She told herself she wasn't going to cry, that it was the end of the world, but she was with Charlie and Peter. She was with friends. Some, out there, were alone, with strangers. But when she had found Rachel, just lying limp on the ground, she couldn't hold back the tears any longer. Peter had been there, to hold her while she cried, Charlie had been supportive. He still didn't know what had happened to Sonia. But not knowing was better than knowing she was dead. Olivia had convinced herself that Rachel was strong enough to survive, that she was alive out there somewhere.

When Dylan exited, he was cleaned, the dirt and mud wiped off. He suddenly looked 10 years younger.

"Dylan, how old are you?" Olivia asked curiously.

"17." Came the reply.

Dylan certainly didn't look 17. His clothes were torn, rags now. His skin broken, and dried blood surrounding wounds. He was mud-covered and dirt-smeared.

No teenager should go through what he had. They shouldn't have to be fearing for their lives every day. Not have to worry they'll be killed every time they step outside. Teenagers should be focused on studies, friends and their family.

Charlie's eyes focused outside the window.

The sun was setting. As Boston became dark once more, the silent air of the day became filled with the howling of the creatures and the bloodcurdling screams of survivors-no-more as the creatures emerged from their slumber in search of food.

The creatures had attacked the lab once before, but deeming it impenetrable, they moved on to easier targets. People roaming around outside.

Olivia and Peter could only wondered, 'how long', until there was no one else left outside, and they'd return. They both knew the lab doors would only hold for so long.

As everyone settled down for the night, Broyles making another bed out of blankets and the remains of a mattress John had found and broke back, Dylan slept peacefully. Ella was on the couch in the office, as usual. Walter was on the mattress next to the tank. Astrid had slumped over on her desk, book in hand. Broyles, Charlie, John, Peter and Olivia took turns, doing 4 hour shifts, basically keeping an eye on the conditions outside, creatures nearby, and making sure the door was locked.

It was Peter's turn. Other than the light snoring of Charlie and Broyles, and Walter's random sleep-talk, it was dead silent.

Eerie.

Peter sat on the floor, against the one of the walls that formed the office. Ella, and Olivia slept inside, Astrid would occasionally, but she found it easier being near Walter in case he decided to take one of his midnight strolls.

Peter faced one of the barred windows. Looking out, he could see the faint outlines of 2 creatures wondering around, the moon's light barely showing through the thick black clouds.

He heard the office door opening, barely a sound until it closed again.

Olivia came up behind him, sitting down beside him.

"Hey, couldn't sleep?" he asked softly.

"Yeah. I could hear them. They're closer tonight?"

"I've seen six walk past outside." Peter explained. He had placed the assault rifle on the floor, leaning against the wall. He suddenly felt vulnerable, unprotected.

Olivia wore what she had been for the past 3 days. Dark blue jeans, mud covered and torn, a blue t-shirt, that too was dirty and torn and her leather jacket. That was dirty, but its black colour making any dirt near-invisible.

Peter was no better. His jeans were ripped to shreds; they probably didn't even count as jeans anymore. His long-sleeved shirt was dirty, torn and clung to his body, his sweat sticking and making the dried out mud more uncomfortable. The temperature inside the lab only seemed to go higher and higher, but the fire was only used till morning, unless it was a cold day. But Peter always felt claustrophobic, especially when it was a small space, with 10 other people, 11 including himself. Sure, they were all his friends, but he didn't want to have to spend every single day for the rest of his life with them.

Olivia rested her head on his shoulder, Peter wrapping his arm around her, pulling her closer.

"We're not gonna survive this, are we?"

"What'd you mean?" he asked, smiling, "We got Walter creating god knows what, if we're lucky one of his experiments may get loose and kill 'em all."

Olivia laughed at the thought.

"And we got Mr. Trigger-happy over there." Peter pointed at a sleeping John.

"And then there's Broyles and Charlie. They'd die before letting you, Astrid or Ella get hurt." He rested his head on hers. His hand gently brushing her cheek. "We are going to be fine, Liv."

Peter used his thumb to tilt her chin upwards, their faces no inches apart. "Don't you dare give up on me, Olivia Dunham." He leaned towards her, his lips brushing ever so lightly against hers.

She was still shock when he pulled away, but she couldn't have that. She followed after him, pulling him into her with a fiery passion. Her hands running through his hair, his hands holding her closer.

They pulled apart when the soft voice of Ella from inside the office interrupted them.

"Aunt Liv?"

"Yeah sweetie, I'm just outside."

Olivia turned back to Peter, giving him one last kiss before returning to the office to Ella.

Peter settled against the wall again. Had he really kissed her? But she didn't freak out, she didn't hide away. He smiled at himself. He had kissed her.

He could hear Olivia's soft voice, singing to Ella.

Peter felt his eyes start to close, sleep trying to overpower him. Her voice was so calming, her singing so sleepy. He forced himself to stay awake, pinching himself. But his mind raced over everything that had just happened.

It was going to a long night.

_A/N: okay so I managed to get time to update this fanfic and my other 'In Your Head'. Hope they're alright cos they were rushed during a free time period. If my exams go well tomorrow, I may be able to do another. No promises though _


	4. December 2011 part 2, Christmas

**Chapter Three**

**Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day – December 2011**

**December 24****th**** 2011 – Christmas Eve**

Broyles, John and Dylan were catching up on sleep, so Charlie and Olivia were outside, just walking. Charlie and Olivia did that a lot. But Peter had come with them this time, holding Olivia's hand casually.

It had become quite crowded in the lab, with Dylan now a permanent resident within its walls, John never leaving Olivia alone with failing attempts to get her back, their boss always there, seeing everything that happened. It was the end of the world, but Broyles still managed to unnerve them.

Peter and Olivia managed to have few moments alone, just them, without the leering eyes of seven other people. What few kisses they shared had happened while they were outside, scavenging for more food, feeding Walter's desire for ice cream and maple candy (he refused to do anything without it). The kisses were long and passionate, but they both knew that they couldn't go any further, not in the lab, and when they were outside, they had a mission to do, they didn't have time to do anything but kiss, much to both Peter and Olivia's disappointment.

Charlie was the one person who had figured them out. He let them have what privacy they could get. He was glad she was happy, finally. John had broken her heart, but Peter fixed her.

They walked a different direction this day. Still keeping an eye out for Dylan's friend, Annie, but so far without success. But they had another motive this time.

They'd moved on to searching for whatever remained of possible Christmas gifts. The trio knew that it meant to world to Ella and Walter, and if they were able to celebrate Christmas, it would help the tension that was building, the thought that everyone was dead, and they'd be too, eventually. They were giving up hope. Astrid put on her best cheerful smile, but even Ella could see through it.

The third shopping centre they had raided actually had surviving items, its walls intact enough that they could walk around inside.

"I found . . . a hot wheels race track." Charlie tugged at it, stuck under fallen cement, "Wait, check that, _half_ a hot wheels racing track."

"I've got barbies, candy and some children's play-make-up for Ella." Olivia called,

"Okay so we've got Ella covered. Now we just need things for everyone else." Peter called from behind fallen bricks.

They were at different ends of the K-mart.

"Hey, we should check storage; I mean they'd keep the good stuff back there." Charlie suggested.

About five minutes into rummaging around the back rooms, Olivia hit the jack pot. A large smile spread across her lips as she called for Peter and Charlie. They both laughed in amazement, who knew a K-Mart would have one.

**December 25****th**** 2011 – Christmas Day **

Peter, Olivia and Charlie had offered for the night shifts, so the others wouldn't see what they were up too. They set up, wrapping the gifts in newspaper and whatever they could find. Walter had gotten up at one point to pee. He was about to walk out the lab doors when Peter hurried after him with several torches to keep an eye on him. The toilets and showers for only a few metres away, but it was night time, and one couldn't be too careful.

"Best Christmas ever." Charlie stated quietly. Olivia smiled in agreement. They were all together; they were some-what safe. It was a perfect Christmas (sure there were monsters waiting to eat them, but other then that).

As the sun began to rise, Peter turned to Olivia, handing her a small dusty box.

"I found this, under some concrete. I thought you'd like it."

Olivia opened the box. Inside was a gold charm. It was a vine encasing a bright blue gem. "I don't know if you'll be able to wear it, but"

"It's beautiful." Olivia looked up at him, her eyes full of love. She suddenly looked at her feet, "I didn't get you anything." She said solemnly.

"A kiss will suffice." Peter smirked,

Olivia leaned up to kiss him, Peter meeting her halfway. Her lips were soft, warm. It was a soft kiss; Peter could tell she was holding back.

Peter looked at her disappointed, but she just smiled, "When we're alone." He smiled back at her.

Charlie watched their encounter from the lab doors, having ducked out for the bathroom.

_-Later That Morning-_

Ella looked at Walter strangely as he bounced around the lab, happy as can be with his new sun glasses.

"Aunt Liv, Walter's being silly." She complained,

"Don't worry sweetie, he'll calm down soon."

"Good Job," Broyles congratulated. "And where did you find the Christmas tree?" he wondered. The green tree had no lights but was covered in tinsel and random decorations in a rush job down by Olivia, Peter and Charlie.

"Oh you know, just in the back of a K-mart." Charlie shrugged like it was no big deal, but Walter and Ella would disagree. They loved it, half-decorated and all.

The trio had found random nick-knacks for everyone else. Unopened scotch for Broyles, cooking mittens for Astrid (though she could no longer cook, she was still happy.), a six pack of beer from the supermarket for John along with a 9mm metal gun bottle opener, they weren't sure what Dylan would want so they went on a limb and gave him a small shaving kit and candy. Olivia and Peter gave Charlie a photo frame.

"What's this for?"

Olivia handed him a photograph. "I found this a while ago, I thought you'd want to preserve it." She handed it to him with a weak smile, unsure of what his reaction would be.

It was a photo of him and Sonia at the lab when they celebrated a successful case.

"Thanks, Liv. This means a lot." He gave her a huge hug, small tears running down his face.

They ate the candy, John sharing the beers around, Ella and Walter drinking juice and Peter and Olivia sharing as they were one short.

They had celebrated Christmas, everyone had fun opening their newspaper wrapped gifts, drinking, eating candy. Charlie conned everyone to play charades and Ella managed to guilt everyone into hide and seek, despite the lack of hiding places, everyone enjoyed it.

John couldn't help but notice the looks, the 'innocent' touches between Peter and Olivia. It wasn't till he saw them kissing out in the hall did he get jealous. He wanted Olivia back. And now Peter Bishop was in the way. But he refused to let it ruin the day, he'd think of something another day, hell, he had till the end of the world, correction, till the end of the world _again_ to figure out what he was going to do to get her back.

**December 26****th**** 2011 – Boxing Day**

John paced the lab impatiently. "Where are they? They shouldn't have been gone so long! How long since they left?" he turned to Charlie.

It was supposed to be a 'quick water/food run and be back before dark' thing.

Charlie checked his watch, "4 hours."

"Shit." John ran a hand through his hair. Looking through the barred window, the last pink and orange light of the sun fell under the horizon.

John wasn't so much worried about Olivia being outside at night, she could kick butt any day. He was more worried about her, alone, with _Peter Bishop_. The way they looked at each other made him jealous, extremely jealous.

Charlie placed a steady hand on John's shoulder. "Don't worry. They'll be okay. Peter's strong and Olivia's stubborn as hell, she'd kick butt before anything happened to her." He tried to comfort him,

All they could do now was hope.

**POPOPOPOP**

As Boston became wrapped in a blanket of darkness, Peter held Olivia's waist strongly, practically dragging her as she limped across the ground. They'd gone out for more water and essentials that Olivia and Astrid would both be needing in the next few days.

The cries of the emerging creatures caused Peter to scoop up Olivia, running full speed into the only standing nearby building, an apartment complex.

He slammed and locked the front door, before running up three flights of stairs till the top apartment. Placing her carefully on the floor, he locked, secured and closed the windows and doors, before urgently lighting a fire. Peter mentally thanked Charlie for giving him a cigarette lighter as a 'just in case'.

As the fire sprang to life, burning the small pieces of wood and paper, Peter settled down finally. "I saw this place earlier. Looks structurally sound, should be okay for the night."

Olivia lay down on the floor, arm over her eyes as Peter tended to Olivia's ankle, gently applying pressure and assessing what was wrong. Eventually he came to a conclusion, "It's just sprained."

"Seriously!" Olivia lifted her head to glare at him, "Certainly doesn't feel like a sprain." She whined.

He tore part of his shirt and bandaged her ankle. Olivia couldn't help but think this as very cliché.

"Well next time, keep an eye out for random pot holes, okay?" he laughed; he had never known Olivia to be so clumsy.

Peter's fingers lazily caressed her ankle, slowly moving up her leg. They were both silent, both watching his hands climb up her leg.

The fire crackled impatiently, the room slowly getting darker.

Peter snapped out of his trance, standing up, "I . . . I should get more firewood. Don't move."

Finding scattered wood in other rooms, he collected enough to last them the night. As he past a second room, he noticed the pile of dusty sheets. Dusting them off (they now looked more blue then grey) he took them with him. If they were to stay the night, they might as well be as comfortable as they could be.

When he returned, Olivia had hobbled over to the closed and bordered window, peeking through the gaps. Peter placed some wood on the fire, it immediately spring back to life. The fire illuminated Olivia's fragile figure, her curves, and the flush of her skin. Even injured and probably in pain, Peter still thought she looked beautiful. He wanted nothing more than to make the pain disappear, to make her melt in his arms, to hold her endlessly, to love her.

He took the blankets, placing several on the floor, making a 'soft-ish' bed for them to sleep on next to the fire.

When he was done he stood up, finding Olivia only inches away from him, her eyes glistening. She took one glance at him, biting her lower lip slightly. He gave her a confused look.

She smiled, pulling him down so she could kiss him. Catching on fast, Peter wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her up slightly.

Their kisses became frantic and full of passion.

Every time they kissed, every time they tried to get closer and then their sudden realisation that they weren't alone, they were never alone. They had plenty of built up sexual energy just bursting to be released. It was painfully obvious, to both of them.

It was a frenzied blur, hands tearing, gripping at clothing. Their bodies flush against each other. Olivia ran her hands up his chest pushing through his hair. She pulled him closer; she couldn't get another enough of him. They stood in their underwear, Peter tracing the top of her breast lazily.

She kissed him again with force, pushing him back against the wall.

Peter pulled away slightly, his breathing ragged as she continued her assault on his neck.

"Liv, wait." She didn't listen, desperately kissing him. Her hand slid down his chest, teasing him through his boxers. He buried his face in her hair, her success made her smile.

She slipped her hand under the fabric, stroking him. He held his legs as they buckled from the pleasure. She continued to stroking him, toying with him. He could feel himself growing close, if she didn't stop, he'd be done before the real fun could begin. He pulled himself away from the sensations, grabbing her hands and pinning them to his chest.

"Olivia, slow down." He begged, she groaned in disapproval.

Peter took his chance to pull her to the floor, lying on the blankets. They hadn't even started yet and they were both sweating form the extreme heat of the fire.

He lay beside her, Olivia still annoyed at his slowness. She had been trying to get him alone for days and reckoned she was more sexual frustrated then he was. She tugged her hands free, dragging them through his hair, kissing him again. But again, he pulled them away, holding them above her head.

"No, you've had your fun. My turn." He wore a huge smug smile.

She huffed, her face pouting in defeat. He didn't release his hold on her hands, his free hand tracing down chest, hovering at her breasts. He moved his hand to her back, unclipping the clasp, throwing her bra to the side. It joined their pile of clothing that spread out over the floor.

He decided to have his fun with her, make her moan and beg, like she had him. He kissed his way to her breast, stopping just before her hardened nipple and kissing back up to her lips. As expected, she squirmed under him, letting out a loud moan of disapproval. He smiled mentally. While his lips kissed and sucked her breasts, his free hand slowly slide down across her stomach, down her waist, moving between her legs. She spread them willingly as Peter's hand pushed her panties aside, slipping a finger into her. Olivia moaned, loudly, her back arching into him, pushing against his hand.

He teased her, stopping every time he felt her getting close, her stiffen against him, shudder, gasp. And she hated him for it. He had released her hands so his other hand could caress her breasts. Olivia's hands clenched the blankets beneath them impatiently, she couldn't wait any longer.

She glared at him when he stopped again. She couldn't take it anymore. She was going to punish him for it. She pushed against him, rolling him onto his back so she straddled him. She leaned down, brushing her lips against neck, rubbing her body against his. As she lay on top of him, she dragged her hand down his chest. She sat up, guiding him into her.

It only took her a few seconds to adjust before she started moving her hips. She found a steady pace; she now wanted this to last as long as it could.

It didn't take long before her breathing hitched, she was getting close again. She gasped his name as all her frustration, her desire flooded out of her, her body rippling with thousands of sensations. Peter was far behind, his own climax pulled from him.

They lay still for a few minutes, catching their breath.

"That was _way_ overdue." Was all Peter said. Olivia couldn't help but laugh in agreement.

They reluctantly got dressed again, the nights outside were quite cold. But as they settled down for the night, Peter pulled Olivia into his chest. She fell asleep easily. She was happy, happier then she had ever been.

During the night, Peter continued putting more wood on the fire, making sure it didn't die out.

Peter knew that once dawn arrived, they'd have to leave, return to the lab with no privacy, no silence, with a defence-brother-like Charlie, a jealous John and Olivia's boss, not to mention Walter making snide remarks about them getting together. Here, in this room, they could be themselves; they could do everything they couldn't at the lab.

It was just them.

But everyone knows, happiness only lasts for so long.

_A/N: wow my longest chapter yet __ just me celebrating end of my exams, YAY, hopefully quicker updates now, but I'm alternating between this and another story. _

_Next up:__ Olivia discovers she's pregnant, Peter and John get in a fight and someone dies :O dun dun duuuummm (lol, I'm terrible at summaries and spoilers :P )_


	5. January 2012 part 1

_A/N: okay so some of you may not have realized, but I really don't like John, I kinda wrote him as the bad guy in this chapter (sorry to any John Scott fans). _

**Chapter Four**

**January 2012**

It had been nearly a month since Dylan was found. He was the last. The screams in the night had nearly stopped, becoming one or two every few weeks. Broyles and John doubled up during night shifts, two people armed to the teeth made everyone else feel much safer. In fact, they hadn't heard much from the creatures in several days. The occasional one would pass by, but nothing compared to the shrieks and howls from a few weeks ago.

Dylan was still terrified of the dark, but was more confident in going outside. But he was careless. Walter mentioned to Broyles and Charlie that he may be depressed. No teenager (well, no _one_) should witness the murder of their friends. Walter was right. No one knew what to do, Astrid did her best to keep him happy, and as the youngest (besides Ella) she connected better with him. They all were waiting for him to crack.

It was Astrid's idea that they all go outside. Everyone had been couped up in the lab, no freedom, no privacy, and god-knows everyone needed some alone time, without the watching eyes of eight other people.

Peter and Olivia took Ella to a nearby park. The swings were rusty and creaked unnervingly when Peter and Olivia took up seats, but the slides were undamaged. Peter had checked their stability before Ella had her fun.

Dylan had followed them, unsure of what to do, he walked around in sight of them and the lab. He looked up when the young girl started laughing uncontrollably. The blonde women, Olivia, her fallen off the swing, landing in a heap in the sand.

Dylan couldn't help the sadness flood through him. Watching as Peter pulled her up, her standing between his legs and kissing him passionately. He would never have that. He would never know what love felt like, what it was like to be held by the one person who you had given your heart too. All of his friends, his family, everyone he ever knew had died, or were soon to be. He may have felt comfortable outside, but he knew. He knew deep down that they too will die eventually. But when? How long where they to wait for death? he started walking away. _Find an alley, a place where no one can see me._ He was content, nothing would change his mind.

Peter and Olivia hadn't noticed Dylan's aimless walking. And too caught up in themselves to notice a spiteful John watching from a distance.

POPOPOPOPOP

It had started off as two men yelling at each other. Well, mainly John screaming at the top of his lungs at Peter.

They stood a few metres from the entrance to Harvard. Astrid had taken Ella back to the park while the 'adults' (they sure as hell weren't acting like adults) dealt with the situation.

"Your fault. His death is on your head!" John's face was red, exploding with rage.

"He wondered off. How were we supposed to know that he was suicidal?" Peter replied coolly, his voice remained normal, never raised. He didn't want to start a fight. They all needed each other to survive.

"We all knew he was depressed. If you had been keeping an eye on him like you were supposed to, instead of eye-fucking with Olivia, he would still be alive."

Peter and Olivia finally caught on to John's hidden motives for his starting this fight.

Olivia walked up next to Peter, "So that's what this is about? Not Dylan's death, but because I kissed Peter?" she knew that with no privacy, they couldn't hide from John. It was inevitable.

John couldn't hold back his anger. It had started as a fight voer Dylan's death, but as John's rage built he exploded. John did what he had to do, terrorists and all. He expected Olivia to understand, she always did what she had to do to get something (though it was usually a case, but in John's mind terrorists and cases were one and the same). He had lost Olivia, but how was a nomadic-jack-of-all-trades son-of-a-loony any better? John was angered that Peter made her happy. Olivia had a heck of a poker face. She always said she was happy, had she been lying? Had he never made her truly happy like she is with Peter?

Peter added on to Olivia's question, "When did this become about us? What, you can't have Olivia, so neither can anyone else?" Peter raised his voice, he was angry too. All John had wanted since Olivia left him was to get her back. Being trapped with her made it that much easier for John, but more annoying for Olivia and Peter.

"You don't deserve her!" John spat,

The two men were now only a foot apart, steam bursting from John's ears, Peter's face slightly red.

"I'm better then you. I make her happy, I make her laugh. I'd never do anything to hurt her." Came Peter's reply.

John threw the first punch. Peter staggering back, his hand clutching his jaw. John approached him, ready for another. This one landed near his eye and temple. The third hit him in his nose. Peter threw one punch in the entire fight. The punch did exactly what Peter had hoped, caught him off guard, smacking him in the corner of his nose and cheek. He staggered backwards creating a space big enough for Olivia to intervene.

As John raged forward towards Peter again, Olivia pushed against his chest with all her force. He stopped looking at her.

"Stop it!" she yelled so both could hear,

Broyles, Charlie and Walter stood around them, watching, unsure of whether or not to intervene.

John watched to his horror as Olivia (to him) finally chose Peter over him. She took Peter by his hand, pulling him towards the lab to treat his wounds.

Inside the lab, Peter sat on the couch in the office, Olivia dabbing lightly at his eye and then his nose. Both were starting to bruise, and his nose would be sore for a few days.

His knuckles were scratched, the blood from his nose dried and his eye soon to be swollen.

"Your gonna have a shiner tomorrow." Olivia laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

Peter kept his head held low. She knew what was wrong.

She continued to clean off the blood and dirt as she spoke to him, "Dylan was unstable. We all knew it. No one could have know he was going to kill himself."

"He just . . . pulled the trigger." Peter spoke, "If we had kept a better eye on him, we'd have seen him walk away."

"Hey, no one could have known. Okay, you shouldn't feel guilt for something that you couldn't prevent."

"But I gave him the gun. Well, you saw how scared he was going outside. I gave him the gun so that he felt better, felt protected. I should have known better thent o give a weapon to a possibly-depressed-teenager." His head sunk lower to the floor.

Olivia moved so she was kneeling between his legs.

"Hey, you couldn't have know." She said reassuringly. She lifted his chin up to look him in the eyes. "I love you, Peter Bishop. Now tell me, am I in love with a guilt ridden man or a man who managed to land a good punch on John?"

He smiled up at her, "I love you too." He leant up kissing her lightly, feeling the smile on her lips.

POPOPOPOPOP

"Hey, Liv?" Astrid called out to her. The lab was surprisingly quiet. Dylan was the one who made the most noise, always talking, trying to keep his sanity, but with him gone, a thick cloud of dullness hovered above the lab.

Charlie was sleeping, snoring loudly as usual, Walter was fiddling with several trinkets, trying to create something no-doubt, Ella was playing with Peter (Peter having found a surviving game of monopoly) John and Broyles outside scavenging as they did every day.

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

Astrid approached her, prepared to talk softly as to not wake Charlie or have Walter and Peter hear.

"Do you mind if I use the last tampon?" she asked guiltily.

"No." Olivia answered simply,

"No?" Astrid was confused. They had figured they were due in the same week, doubling up on supplies, but Astrid had used most, no _all_ of them.

"No?" Olivia repeated, mostly for her sake, thinking it through.

She hurried off to the bathroom, she need to check. According to her 'period math' she was 2 weeks late. She had never been late. Always on time, every Wednesday. But there was nothing. No blood, not even a small trace to show it was on its way.

Astrid had offered to go with her outside to the surviving shopping centre, where they got most of their food, only leaving behind what they couldn't carry or what lasted longer (like tinned foods and heavier items).

They searched the aisles, looking for one thing in specific.

"Found it!" Astrid called from the aisle next to the one Olivia was searching through.

"Oh thank god!" Olivia took the small box, slipping it into her pocket.

Back at the lab, no one had noticed their departure.

In the bathroom, Olivia paced the length impatiently. Astrid propped against the door (mainly to stop the boys coming in since the men's bathroom had collapsed months ago).

"How long now?" she asked nervously.

Astrid checked her watch, "3 minutes."

It was the longest three minutes of Olivia's life. She glanced at teh small stick every few seconds, mentally demanding it to be negative, of only _one_ line to appear. But sure enough, when the three-longest-most-agonising-minutes were over, there it was. Two pink lines.

She was pregnant.

_A/N: okay so I know where this story is going, how it will end and all, but I'm not really sure what to write for the middle months after Olivia discovers she's pregnant and the events in the Preface. __PLEASE review and leave suggestions__ cos I'm really into this story and eager to write as much as I can, but I want to write what you guys wanna read. _


	6. January 2012 part 2

**A/N: Oh my god, I am soooooo soooooo sorry for the late update. No excuse really, I've been lazy, with the end of my uni year and having nothing to do, I've forgot to update. For me, it's been one of those 'sleep till 2 in the evening' weeks **

**So part one of my two part apology, I've written 2000+ word chapters and I am uploading two chapters tonight **

_PREVIOUSLY_

_It was the longest three minutes of Olivia's life. She glanced at the small stick every few seconds, mentally demanding it to be negative, for only one line to appear. But sure enough, when the three-longest-most-agonising-minutes were over, there it was. Two pink lines._

_She was pregnant. _

**Chapter Five**

**January 2012 (part 2)**

– two days after part 1

_I need to tell Peter, Peter first, then the others._ Olivia thought, as she paced outside the doors to the lab. Just as she managed to convince herself to tell him more thoughts flooded her mind, _what if he doesn't want it? What if he freaks out? Oh shit, what am I going to do if Peter doesn't want it? Maybe I could tell Charlie. Yeah, Charlie would support me, help me through. He always has. _

Peter and Broyles had ventured outside. Charlie had been 'charged' with Walter duty because he had mistakenly brought back different medicines from a pharmacy for whatever their use could be (you never know when paracetamol or antiseptic drops would come in handy). Walter had spent the entire day now trying to create drugs. Mainly things to relieve the stress and help him 'have fun', all in his words of course. After Walter tried to drug them, and in his defence said "so everyone would relax and have fun", Broyles made Charlie watch over him since it was _Charlie_ who gave him the medicines.

Olivia had almost freaked when she found out, Astrid and her wondering about the effects on the baby, but keeping things lull since no one else knew.

The past events made Olivia more confident that telling Charlie would be best, and since he was actually nearby, she could tell him before she changed her mind about telling anyone.

Looking through the lab silently, she could see Charlie watching over Walter from a reasonable distance and John sitting glumly playing with a tennis ball.

She stepped silently into the lab. Astrid looked at her from in the office, smiling sweetly, encouragingly, before Ella wanted her attention again. They had started building a house from a deck of cards and after the two times Walter accidentally knocked it over, they moved into the office.

Charlie saw Olivia approaching him and stood up smiling. "Hey, Liv. You alright now?"

Of course Charlie would see the frequent trips to the bathroom.

"Yeah, can I talk to you?" she looked around, trying to find somewhere where John couldn't hear them,

"Sure, do you want to go somewhere private or..." they both laughed at Charlie's attempt at sarcasm.

Astrid looked up from her game with Ella, meeting Olivia's sad eyes.

"Hey, 'Livia, I'm going to take Ella outside for some fresh air. We'll be back in a few." She said, taking Ella's hand and weaving her out of the lab. Olivia smiled and nodded a 'thank you'.

"Come here, Charlie." Olivia pulled him into the office.

Once inside, she closed and locked the door, pressing her back against the door. She stared at her feet, unsure of how to start the conversation. She _needed_ to talk to someone. She _needed_ someone's support. She _needed_ her best friend.

"Liv? What's wrong?" Charlie asked after she didn't move.

"We . . . I . . . I'm . . ." she couldn't find the words. Choking on every sentence, one every word as she tried to tell Charlie.

"'Livia?" Charlie walked up to her, holding her arms, comfortingly.

Outside, John looked up from his tennis ball, not having previously noticed everyone's sudden departure, or the silence.

"Liv, what's wrong? Are, are you sick? Did something happen?" Charlie was guessing now. Trying to find the words that Olivia couldn't. But she knew he wouldn't guess it.

Olivia looked up at him, her eyes welling with silent tears.

"I'm pregnant." She said, barely an audible whisper.

Charlie couldn't find anything to say. Now _he_ was the one choked on words.

He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck, his other hand reaching out towards her stomach but stopping halfway. He was trying to grapple with the news.

Charlie looked at her, seeing the hurt, he pulled her into a big hug. Massaging his hands over her back, trying to calm her as she broke down in front of him.

Charlie had never seen Olivia Dunham so scared, so upset or broken. But he didn't know whether it was because that she didn't want to raise a child in a world like this, or because she was pregnant. But his thoughts shifted,

"Have you told Peter?" he whispered into her hair, stroking it.

Olivia shook her head against his chest.

"You should. He needs to know. You won't be able to _not_ tell him, Liv."

John watched their encounter through the office window. _What was wrong? Had something happened to Olivia? _John had never seen Olivia cry. Ever. John's mind jumped straight to Peter. _What had _he_ done to hurt her? _But John could only sit and wonder what could possibly make her cry as Charlie comforted her.

"I know." This was a broken sob.

Charlie held her close as she cried against his chest.

Charlie was stilling hugging Olivia when Peter and Broyles returned. They hadn't moved, Charlie slowly rocking Olivia in his arms as she calmed down and (Charlie had began to think) possibly having fallen asleep.

Peter's first thoughts were that John had hurt her. But John was sitting idly on the floor on the other side of the lab, throwing his tennis ball back and forth against the wall. He glared at Peter as he and Broyles entered and walked through the lab. Neither knew what was wrong with Olivia, but sure-as-hell, were willing to blame the other.

Just as Charlie thought, Olivia had fallen asleep. He placed her softly on the couch in the office, tucking the blanket over her.

He exited the office, leaving her to sleep, and walking towards a worried Peter.

"We saw Astrid and Ella at the park. They said that they will be back in a few." Peter spoke, his eyes never leaving Olivia's sleeping figure. He walked up to Charlie, still watching Olivia and placing a hand on Charlie's shoulder. "Charlie, what's wrong with her? Is she sick, did John don something?" he asked, concerned, slightly demanding.

"No, no. She's just . . ." Charlie looked at Olivia too, _She should tell him herself_, he thought, deciding not to break the news, "she's been really stressed, she needs to rest, so I'd really appreciate it if we all let her sleep." He answered.

Peter seemed doubtful of Charlie's truth, but thinking back through the last month and a bit, Olivia _had_ been stressed and not sleeping well.

They all kept quiet for the rest of the day.

POPOPOPOP

It wasn't until high pitched screams echoed through the lab did Olivia wake suddenly.

She left the confines of the office to find Peter and John shooting out through the barred windows into the partially set sun surrounds.

"What, what's happening?" she was still dazed, stumbling.

"Astrid and Ella. They got caught out as the sun set. They're not far off," John called over the noise created by the weapons,

"But they've got creatures on their six." Broyles added,

It took Olivia a minute to fully understand the situation, "Wait, why did they stay outside?"

No one answered. No one knew.

Olivia immediately grabbed her hand gun, running to the lab door. She unlocked it with lightning speed, disappearing out into the hallway.

"O-LIVIA!" Charlie called after her desperately. He abandoned the window and chased after her.

"OLIVIA!" he chased her through the hallways of Harvard, both sprinting outside towards a desperately running Ella and Astrid.

Both Charlie and Olivia let loose two clips of ammo into the three creatures running behind Ella and Astrid.

Two of the creatures fell to the ground, the third tearing, viciously through the overgrowth towards them. The creature lunged at Olivia, its claws cutting the flesh on her arm and near her near, above her chest.

Charlie emptied several more rounds into the creature. It collapsed in a heap on the ground, screeching in pain.

Ella ran into Olivia's arms, gripping her tightly. Astrid, panting uncontrollably as she tried to regain her balance and calm herself. Her weapon was empty, having fired the nine rounds.

The creature opened its mouth, trying to breathe, its claws digging into the ground, trying to crawl closer to them. Hissing, its fangs retracted into the gums of its mouth, its final breath escaping from between its sharp teeth.

"Ella, sweetie, are you okay?" Olivia clutched the seven-year-old closer.

"Uh-huh." She nodded into her chest. Small tears flowed down her face. Ella only cried when her mother, Rachel, had died. This was the first time in years that she was really scared. She always had her Aunt Liv and Uncle's Peter and Charlie to protect her.

They stood in the night, catching their breath. The sounds of other creatures broke the eerie silence.

"Ella, come one." Astrid grabbed Ella's hand, dragging her back inside, to the safety of the lab.

Charlie pulled Olivia towards the building. "Liv, come on. Let's GO!"

Olivia snapped out of her haze, running back the lab.

Once they were inside the hallways, Charlie stopped, standing in front of Olivia. Face red, eyes angry.

"What the _Hell_ where you thinking!" he demanded.

"What?"

"Running off like that! What if it wasn't your arm that got torn?" he held up her now bleeding profusely arm, the blood having flown down to her wrist, dripping on the floor. The cuts on her neck were only small, scratches.

"Ella was out there, so was Astrid! They wouldn't have made it without our help!"

"But what about the baby? You shouldn't risk you life like that!"

"I'm fine, Charlie." Olivia insisted. "I risk my life _every day_. It _was_ my job. And if you haven't noticed Charlie, the world has gone to hell; just living in it is taking a risk!" Olivia raise her voice, trying to get the point across.

"Why did you tell me about the baby? So I could watch out for you? Help you while you tried to tell Peter? That's exactly what I'm trying to do! I want to keep you and the baby safe, which means no more midnight runs in the dark after scary monsters."

Olivia accepted his argument. She had told him for exactly that reason.

Olivia pulled Charlie into a hug, "Thank you, Charlie. For looking out for me." She admitted, resting her head against his neck.

"When the baby is born, may I suggest the name Charlie? It suits boys AND girls."

"I haven't told Peter that I'm pregnant," Olivia pulled away from the hug, looking up at Charlie, "So we'll have to ask him when I do . . . eventually . . . if he wants to keep it." She lowered her head to the floor at the possibility that Peter may not want to raise the baby with her.

"I do." came a voice from down the hall.

Olivia jumped away from Charlie. Both turning to face the person. It was Peter, standing just outside the lab doors.

"Oh my god, Peter." Olivia called; she walked towards him, leaving Charlie, "I didn't want you to find out this way."

"But you told Charlie first." He stated. He had heard everything, having come out looking for them. Peter's heart had torn when he heard her talking with Charlie. Peter loved her, but was broken when he found out she told Charlie first. But somehow, he understood. They were best friends, of course she'd tell him. She needed support, someone she could lean on when things went sour. Peter knew that he wanted everything with her. He wanted the baby; he would do everything to keep him, or her, safe. Grow up healthy. In the few seconds between words, Peter had mapped out everything he wanted to do.

"Yes . . . but only because I was unsure of how you would react. I didn't know what you would want."

"I love you, Olivia. This is everything I've wanted. Sure, our current situation could be better, but I have you nonetheless." He smiled at her, taking her outstretched hand and pulling her into a hug. She smiled against his chest.

The trio entered the lab, Peter and Olivia holding hands, Olivia beaming with happiness.

Astrid saw her bright glow, relieved she had told him. Soon, in their own time, they would tell Broyles and Walter, and John.

Peter took Olivia, sitting her down near the desk in the corner of the lab, near the tank, first aid kit in hand.

He started to wash away the dirt from the wound on her arm, sterilizing it and bandaging it, before moving onto her neck. Her neck was only a shallow cut, stopping the bleeding and keeping it clean would do.

Broyles deadlocked the lab doors, everyone sighing in relief as a thick sense of safety fell over everyone.

The howling of the creatures outside didn't stop them from doing the normal routine. It was John's turn to fashion together a meal, in one form or another. Bread and noodles was all he could create. Passing it around, Ella ate eagerly, tired and hungry from experience outside, she fell asleep soundly soon after finishing her noodles.

Peter and Olivia sat in the corner, near the sensory deprivation tank, talking to themselves about the baby, keeping their voices low. They didn't want John or Walter to know just yet. They didn't mind telling Broyles. He'd become more relaxed around them, but Walter and John were the ones that would make a big fuss over it.

"What if it's a girl?" Olivia asked him.

"Pepper?" Peter suggested.

Olivia scrunched her face at the name. She didn't want her child to be named after any food, flavouring included. Peter had suggested fruit names like Peach and Pear. Flowers, like Rose and Petunia. Olivia knew he was teasing her.

He then suggested, "Rachel." And Olivia's face lit up. It was perfect.

"And what about if it's a boy?" she asked,

Peter still held her hand, his thumb stroking over the top, soothingly.

"Sequoya." He teased,

She just glared at him. "I know that your family may be full of loonies, but I refuse to let our baby be called Sequoya."

They hadn't decided on a boy name before sleep overcame them. Curled up together on the worn and torn mattress next to the tank, Peter had his arm wrapped around Olivia's waist, his hand placed on her stomach under her shirt, lightly tracing patterns on the bare flesh as they slept.

For the first time in a very long while, Peter dreamt. Not about monsters, or some case, or the creatures that hunted them. Instead, he dreamt about the baby, about his and Olivia's future. He wanted the baby _so_ much. But what if none of them survived for the child to have a full life? What if they all died, leaving the child alone in this horrible place for a world? What if Olivia died before the baby could be born? His happy dreams of their future quickly turned sour as he remembered their situation.

The end of the world.

It's no place to raise a family.

**A/N: so this is 2600 words, 5 pages in Word. The second part of my apology for the late delay will be up in a few minutes. Please forgive me and please review **


	7. February 2012

**A/N: okay this is part two of my two part apology for the long wait on this update. Hope you like it **** and please forgive me. **

_PREVIOUSLY _

_For the first time in a very long while, Peter dreamt. Not about monsters, or some case, or the creatures that hunted them. Instead, he dreamt about the baby, about his and Olivia's future. He wanted the baby so much. But what if none of them survived for the child to have a full life? What if they all died, leaving the child alone in this horrible place for a world?_

_What if Olivia died before the baby could be born? His happy dreams of their future quickly turned sour as he remembered their situation. _

_The end of the world. _

_It's no place to raise a family. _

**Chapter Six**

**February 2012**

Two and half months. Olivia stood in front of the bathroom mirror, holding her shirt up. She had been staring at her stomach for at least 10 minutes. Olivia still couldn't believe she was pregnant. There was only the slightest bump, but to anyone around, it was unnoticeable.

Peter stood, leaning against the bathroom wall, arms crossed, watching as Olivia tried different angles in the mirror, trying to find the baby bump. She groan in displeasure when she came up fruitless in her search over her body. Huffing in defeat she dropped her shirt.

They still hadn't told Walter or Broyles, or John. Olivia wanted to keep it a secret until it was plainly obvious. She couldn't admit it herself; proof was what she needed, the bloated stomach, morning sickness... but two months into her pregnancy and . . . nothing. She'd thrown up once, but that was because Broyles hadn't cooked the rice properly and it was still raw, either that or the baby really didn't like uncooked rice.

Peter walked up behind Olivia, wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her into him. She sighed against his touch, leaning back against his chest. Both had been stressed. Ella was having nightmares about the creatures, which took up most of Olivia's time, while Peter dealt with Walter and his continuing experiments. Walter wanted to continue looking for a weakness, something that would poison the creatures, kill them, all at once.

The creatures hadn't given up. They still walked around outside the lab, occasionally one would head-butt the door, but once realising it was a fruitless attempt, would leave. For the past few weeks, Peter and Olivia rarely had time by themselves, to talk about their situation, what was to come, let alone have 'alone' time together.

Olivia had managed to get Ella to sleep, even though it was midday, she slept soundly, Astrid keeping an eye on her between reading her books she had found. John and Charlie were doing the usual routine. Search for survivors and anything they can use. It was only Broyles, Walter and Astrid in the lab.

All of a sudden, the bathroom seemed very inviting.

Peter placed soft kisses down her neck as pressed her body further against his.

"Hi." he said between kisses,

"Hi." Olivia mirrored.

Peter snaked his hands down her body, relishing the sounds that escape her soft lips. He brushed his fingers over the waistband of her pants, fondling with the button and the zipper. Slipping his hand under her panties he felt her body tense under his touch. Olivia's breath hitched as his hand slipped lower and lower down her body. He continued his assault on her neck, his breath lingering as his other hand pushed up under her shirt, caressing her skin just below her breast, teasing her.

Olivia turned in his arms, pushing him against the bathroom wall, and kissing him passionately. He returned, by lifting her up so she could wrap her legs around him, and setting her down on the bathroom bench.

He kissed down her neck as his hands roamed her body. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer. She didn't want any space between them. She ran her fingers up under his shirt, tracing over his bare back. She lifted his shirt over his head, Peter reluctantly removing his hands from her body to throw the shirt to the floor.

Peter did the same with her shirt, leaving her sitting in her bra and jeans. He attached his mouth to her neck, kissing down her pulse point, enjoying the moans he was pulling from her lips. He sucked at her skin for a bit, she leaned her head back, giving him better access to her neck, while her hands roamed up and down his back.

She pulled her hands to his front, slipping past the front of his jeans, her hand heading down to his boxers.

Neither had heard the bathroom door open, too absorbed in their caresses to notice anyone but themselves.

It wasn't until they heard a third person cough discreetly did they separate. Both their eyes glazed over, Olivia's face immediately went red.

Broyles stood embarrassed and frozen in place, having just witnessed his favourite and best agent with the FBI consultant. Sure he had noticed the sexual tension, the brief moments between them but he had never seen them 'together', let alone bare chests pressed together, hands in each other's pants.

He left abruptly, his eyes full of apologies. If his skin wasn't a dark brown, he, no doubt, would have been red with embarrassment.

Olivia pushed Peter away, pulling her shirt back on and doing up her zipper. Peter did the same, but before they left he pulled her closer, kissing her intensely, letting her know that he wanted to continue. She smirked at him, taking his hand and dragging him out of the bathroom.

When they exited, Broyles nodded at them apologising.

"Sir," Olivia acknowledged, dragging Peter behind her. They half sprinted down the hallway out of embarrassment over being caught and their fiery desire for each other.

Broyles watched them leave, smiling at the memory of how unique and different they were when he first met them, but together, how perfect they were as a whole. Despite his gladness of their happiness, he was still embarrassed as to how he had found them; both shirtless, entwined in each other, not noticing of his presence.

Olivia pulled Peter down the hallways of Harvard, further away from the lab. Exploring each of the rooms of the abandoned school they soon found one with a lockable door. Not wasting any time, they ducked inside, Peter locking the door as Olivia pushed him against it. She tugged his shirt off forcefully, trying to make up for the lost time. Peter laughed at her eagerness.

"Slow down, Liv. We don't want to hurt the baby." he said, holding her hands still as they fumbled with his belt and zipper.

"You'll be hurting me if you say no." she smiled at him slyly. She was going to have her way with him, whether he agreed or not.

It was going on three months since they first slept together. They hadn't exactly had longer than five minutes alone together to be able to do anything. Being trapped outside was a fluke event and was unlikely to happen again, throwing their chances of being together out the window.

Olivia had two months worth of pent up sexual frustration. Peter no doubt, had the same, though he had more self control. But he could feel that all disappear the second she slide her hand under his pants to stroke him. His head fell back against the door as she did. She smiled deviously at his response.

Peter could feel his body coming to life under her touch. She pulled down his jeans and he kicked them off smoothly, joining his shirt.

In one quick motion he had scooped her up, sitting her on the desk that sat against the far wall.

Peter looked her over. "This isn't very fair." he stated, indicating to her still being fully clothed.

He pulled her to him so he stood between her legs, slowly, teasingly, lifting her shirt up. She groaned in frustration, he was taking too long so she shoved his hands aside and took it off herself, throwing it away. She undid the button and zipper on her jeans, shrugging out of them and kicking them to the floor to join her shirt.

She crawled further onto the desk, away from Peter. Her finger motioning for him to follow her. He climbed on top of her. Giving her another look over.

"Much better." he said approvingly. She just laughed, kissing him viscously but passionately.

Desperation and sheer Lust was what was driving them both. No doubt they would have done it there and then in the bathroom hadn't Broyles walked in. But somewhere inside both Peter and Olivia, they were glad they hadn't. This way, they were alone. Complete privacy and they could take as long as they wanted. Not worrying if Broyles or John or Walter walked in. God knows Walter would be jumping for joy at knowing that 1. His son was a sexual prowess and 2. That he and Olivia had finally gotten together. Months of 'You'd make a good couple' and 'You should ask her out' they had had enough of Walter's comments. Peter had wondered how Walter knew Olivia had feelings for him. Sometimes Peter could swear Walter was psychic.

Peter lay sideways on the desk next to her. But before Olivia could object to his movement, he slipped his hand under her black panties. Instead of words, a soft moan escaped her lips as his fingers touched her. He smiled at his actions. He wanted to tease her, prolong their freedom and privacy for as long as he could. He didn't want a fast screw, much to her annoyance. He wanted this to be about her, for her to feel unstressed, relaxed.

As the moans from her lips became more and more frequent with Peter's name mixed in now and then, Peter knew she was close. A wave of pleasure rippling through her entire body as her breath hitched. Her hands gripped the edges of the desk as she collapsed, screaming his name, under his touch.

He still lay beside her as her chest rose and fell, sweat glistening over her breasts.  
"Feeling better, sweetheart?" he asked her. All she could do was nod, trying to catch her breath.

When she could breathe properly she looked at him. He watched as emotions play through her eyes until he saw something he didn't like at all. She looked at him eagerly, slyly. Before he knew what had happened she had rolled them so she straddled him, kissing him with a fiery passion he never knew she had.

He knew she liked control, and whenever she did give up control she sometimes didn't know what to do. Perfect example would be when she let Peter drive. She'd fidget and chew her nails.

But Peter liked her on top. It felt right. She pushed his boxers off, enjoying the state she had gotten him in. Smirking, she dragged her hand down his chest. Hovering above him, Olivia positioned him just right, before thrusting down onto him.

He groaned at the sudden new feeling as she pushed him in deeper. She started moving her hips. She rocked back and forth slowly at first, but speeding up as her second orgasm approached. He lifted up to kiss her. Moving with her, he sat up, kissing his way down her neck, his breath washing over her breasts. Olivia threw her head back as his mouth latched onto one of her nipples. Peter looked up at her, watching her reaction as he pulled the different sensations from her body. It wasn't long before her breathing hitched and her body convulsed around him. He heard his name escape her lips between breathy moans. And that was all it took for his own orgasm to be ripped from him. They sat on the desk, sweaty, chests pressed tightly together, breathing heavily. Peter looked at her, pulling her down for a deep kiss. She still straddled him, her forehead resting in the crook of his neck as he sucked on her pulse point.

They remained in their embrace for several minutes, just holding each other, hands caressing. When they saw the sun beginning to set outside the window, they reluctantly separated and started to dress. Occasionally they'd stop for a deep kiss, exchanging longing glances, both wishing for more time together.

Wrapping his arm around her waist, they walked back to the lab, a soft glow of happiness enveloping them.

They were still a bit away from the lab when Olivia stopped, pulling away from Peter's grip and disappearing into a room. Peter followed her, realising what had caught her eye. It was a normal room, desk and chairs, boards for the professors to use, but to the corner was an opened storage door. Inside they could clearly see outlines of a bed and two bright pink beanbags. Olivia grabbed the bean bags, handing one to Peter and taking a blanket off the pile in the corner of the storage room.

"At least now Charlie can sleep on something softer then the ground." Olivia smiled,

But Peter looked around the room, seeing more potential. "You know, this is far away from the lab. The door locks," he said showing the deadlock, "I'm sure the bed will be softer then the desk, next time." He breathed the last two words, his mouth close to her ear.

Olivia leaned up and kissed him, "till next time." She replied.

They hurried off to the lab, dragging the bean bags behind them. The day hadn't been so much of a waste.

**A/N: Okay so I wanted to do a chapter all about them. The next chapter will be more about them telling everyone about her pregnancy, or them finding out (I will not tell which), but as suggested, I think I'll have an Olivia/Ella moment. **

**Reviews most welcome, tell me what works, what doesn't, did I leave anything out... **


	8. March 2012

_A/N: Okay, I'm going away visiting rellies over the Christmas period so this is an extra long chapter for all my readers. _

_I'll be writing while I'm away but my parents live on a farm, so internet isn't too good. But that means that by the time I'm back to civilisation, I'll have two or three chapter's done to upload __ Yay! _

_Hope you enjoy, read and review _

**Chapter Seven**

**March 2012**

The bean bags had made Charlie's sleeping arrangements _much_ more comfortable. They now had [though barely] comfortable sleeping arrangements for everyone. The creatures hadn't backed off completely, they still appeared now and then, but the group only felt the need for one of the guys to stand guard during the night, swapping over halfway through. Olivia and Peter shared shifts, Olivia not wanting to give up her normal routine because she was pregnant. She hadn't given up going outside, much to Peter's annoyance over her and the baby's safety. Peter kept trying to convince her to tell the others, at least Broyles. Olivia had already admitted she was a little worried of how John would react. He was a strange man, happy one moment (well trigger happy at least), and then angry three seconds later.

Walter and the other hand, they had agreed on just waiting until he found out in his own way. If they told him, he'd make a _huge_ deal about it, BUT if he found out on his own, it would be a surprise and he would focus his attention on the baby, rather than the 'how' of its conception.

Peter held Olivia's hair out of her face as she, for the third time this morning, threw up into the toilet bowl. She hadn't left the cubicle since daybreak, literally hugging the bowl.

"Rachel had said that it goes away after the 12th/13th week," she spluttered, managing to catch her breath again. "So . . . soon." She tried to put on a reassuring smile. Peter as usual, could see right through her.

Charlie sat outside the bathrooms, waiting for one of them to tell him Olivia was alright. When Peter emerged, Charlie caught a glimpse of the blonde haired women, sitting on the floor of the bathroom, her hair stuck to her face from sweat, pale faced and looking exhausted.

"She doesn't look to good." Charlie stated, standing up to meet Peter.

"She's been throwing up every morning for the last three weeks and she can't keep any type of food down."

"When's the last time she ate something?" Charlie asked,

"Ah, she ate some rice and bread yesterday, lunch time."

At that moment, John walked out of the lab, carrying a bottle of water and some type of soup Walter and Ella had cooked for lunch.

"Hey, Ella asked me to give this to Olivia. Is she okay now? Is it the flu?" he asked, completely oblivious to awkward tension in the air.

"Yeah," Charlie agreed quickly,

Olivia exited the bathroom, having washed her face, her hair in a messy bun.

"Hey, Liv, Ella made soup." He held the bowl out to her,

The instant the smell hit her nose she quickly pulled her hands over her mouth and ran back into the bathroom.

"Bad flu." John concluded, "I remember having that kind of flu when I was a kid. Mum said I refused to eat anything but bread and sugar water. I'll go see if we have any sugar, make her one. See if it helps."

John left, taking the bowl of soup with him. Once the lab doors were shut, Charlie spoke,

"I'm guessing you haven't told him yet?"

"No. But I think he's becoming more . . . accepting, that Olivia doesn't want to be with him. I just hope that he's not armed when he finds out."

They both laughed.

Olivia eventually left the bathroom. Paler than ever, her blond hair clung to the moisture on her face and neck, with dark circles under her green eyes.

Peter tried every food and what-not that they had. Canned, liquid, solid, fruit, vegetables, meats, breads. _Everything._ And every time she either threw up or started crying.

Peter was completely baffled as to what to do. Her hormones shouldn't be _this_ out-of-whack.

John had been convinced that it was the flu, up until he overheard Charlie talking to Olivia. She had been crying and was still pale. Charlie had found a can of tinned spaghetti. At the moment that was all she could keep down. She had scoffed four tins in the last 2 hours.

Sitting in the office, she laid on the couch, trying to relax, Charlie sitting with her until Peter returned.

"Okay, once Peter returns I am going to go with Ella to the park, Astrid isn't too excited to go again after her last brush with the creatures."

Peter came back through the lab doors, carrying a large collection of tinned spaghetti, stacked up his arms and stuffed in his pockets.

John was playing with the tennis ball again (was there really anything better to do) and counting in his head backwards from 1000.

"Look after yourself and the baby." Charlie said, stroking her face as he left. Ella took Charlie's hand and practically dragged him out of the lab, Broyles in tow with two semi-automatics (just in case).

John had thought he had misheard what Charlie had said, but it was only confirmed when Peter closed the office door, handing Olivia a tin. She opened it and ate it eagerly.

John could hear Peter telling her to calm down and to eat slower. John watched through the blinds as Peter placed his hand on her stomach, rubbing it softly.

"Livvie, you got to take your time, spread out your eating." Olivia pouted when Peter took her second tin from her before she could open it. Never, had Peter seen her eat so much at once. Either she was addicted to spaghetti or the baby was addicted to spaghetti, one of the two. "Come on, can you at least try and eat some bread. Did John give you the sugar water?"

She nodded, "It went down but tasted too sweet."

"Well at this rate, the baby will be fat on spaghetti."

Olivia looked horrified at this thought. She and Rachel were naturally skinny. They had extremely good metabolisms which meant they could eat a lot and be able to exercise it off easily. But the thought of their baby being fat scared her. She had never once been overweight.

Peter could only laugh at the horrid looked spread across her face. "Come on, fresh air and a walk will do you good." Peter leaned over and kissed her softly, pulling away before she could deepen the kiss (definitely hormones). He took her hand and pulled her out of the office.

The first thing John said stunned both of them,

"You're pregnant? That's why you've been sick?" his voice wasn't accusing, it wasn't angry or violent, it was full of concern.

Olivia stopped dead in her tracks. Stunned into silence.

John saw Peter squeeze her hand either in fear or reassurance. Seeing this, the connection between them, John didn't know what to do.

John had always loved Olivia whether or not she loved him back. Before their break up, he knew something was off, he could only watch as Peter made her laugh. Made her smile. Made her carefree. She wasn't the same Olivia Dunham he had meet years ago.

Even before their break up, when their relationship was becoming rocky. She would be coming home later, she'd be happy until she walked in the door, seeing John and her smile would fade.

Whenever the two department groups ended up working together, she was always distant, avoiding. She (as usual) would spend her entire day with Peter, talking, going out to the bar for drinks after a successful case or going to the Bishops house for movie night which Walter held weekly. John didn't know it then, but he had already lost Olivia to Peter, even if she didn't know it yet.

John couldn't find an angry bone in his body. She was pregnant. She was happy, he could see a certain glow about her. For some reason John wasn't angry or upset. He felt . . . Glad.

Something good has come of the disaster the world has become. In death there is life. In a world full of so much evil, so much hate, a child would be born to two happy loving parents with friends who would all love him, or her.

It surprised Olivia and Peter when John walked calmly up to her and pulled her into a big hug. Olivia laughed; relieved he didn't get angry or try and pick a fight with Peter. Peter smiled at her over John's shoulder.

Things were starting to look better.

****A Few Weeks Later****

It hadn't taken Walter long to figure it out himself. Broyles picked up on it early, but kept it quiet till they decided to tell everyone themselves. Walter had danced around the lab happily, singing 'I'm going to be a grandpa' over and over again. Days later, his smile hadn't left his face. They could only laugh as Walter began making all these plans, where the child would go to school, university, where they would live, (in Walter's mind: all after the world was restored back to normal, _of course_).

Charlie had never seen Olivia so happy. No secrets weighing her down, no job to keep her distracted. Even Charlie had to admit that she did seem to glow slightly. Always happy, bubbly even, her mood was infectious.

Ella had been slightly confused as to how Olivia is having a baby when she and Peter were 'friends'. Peter had given her the corny 'If you love someone very much, you can have a baby' speech which caused an uproar of laughter in the lab. But nonetheless, Ella was excited about having a cousin to play with.

Olivia had Peter had much more alone time now, everyone giving them space. No one would question where they went during the day; Astrid was more than happy to cook extra food when the baby starved Olivia. Over time she managed to keep down rice and most tinned soups. They had yet to try meats.

It was nearing night again and the boys were all waking from their day-time catch-up-on-sleeping naps, preparing and locking the lab.

Ella sat in the office with Olivia, both curled up on the couch, watching the boys close windows, bolt them, and sealing the lab doors.

"Aunt Liv? What are you going to call it?" she asked innocently. Ella was looking up at her, bright eyes gazing at her, waiting for a response.

"Well, I don't know, sweetie. Uncle Peter and I haven't really chosen a name yet." Olivia stroked the child's brown hair. "We were thinking of Rachel, if it's a girl."

"Like mummy's name!" she said excited, but her smile faded away quickly.

"Yes, like mummy's name." Olivia whispered,

It was only then that Olivia realised the impact of her words on the child. Ella's body had become ridged,

"Mummy's gone." She whispered solemnly. She buried her face into the crook in Olivia's neck, hiding behind her blonde hair.

"Yeah, sweetie, Mummy's gone."

Trying to change the mood, "Do you want to know what Peter wants to call the baby if it's a boy?"

Ella nodded her small head against her neck, "what?" came the soft reply,

"Sequoya."

Ella instantly sat up, her face scrunched up, the same way Olivia's had when Peter had suggested 'Pepper'. For a seven year old, at least she knew better than for a baby to be called Sequoya.

"Uncle Peter's being silly, Aunt Liv." She stated, matter-of-factly,

"I hope so. Otherwise you'll have a cousin Sequoya to play with."

Ella shook her head, refusing to have a cousin named that before it was even born. Ella, settling back down neck to Olivia, asked, "What about Sam or Liam? I went to preschool with them."

"Yeah, maybe. But we'll have to ask Peter."

Ella moved her head so she looked up at her Aunt. "What if he names it Walter?" She asked shocked,

"Do we really want another Walter running around? He's a bit of a handful don't you think, sweetie?"

"Uh, huh. He made some gooey pink stuff yesterday and it smelled re-ally, REALLY bad." Ella waved her hand over her nose as emphasis.

Ella talked about all of Walter's experiments and the games he would play with her when Uncle Charlie or Aunty Astrid weren't around. Olivia could honestly see that Walter made Ella happy but at times, even Ella knew when Walter had taken things too far. She was indeed a bright young girl, just like her mother.

Sleep eventually took the small child and Olivia was left with her own thoughts for a while. She began to worry, 'would she be as good of a mother to her child as Rachel was to Ella?', 'Would the baby be healthy, being born in a wasteland, in a lab full of chemicals and god-knows-what-else?',

Olivia hadn't really worried about these before, but as reality hit her, she was having a baby, a _baby,_ in a world were no child should have to grow up, she couldn't stop the worrying thoughts form invading her mind.

Olivia moved Ella so she lay fully on the couch and Olivia was free to leave the office.

Olivia couldn't sleep that night. The howls outside had decreased, but over the last few months, she had become use to them. Peter, Charlie and John were all out cold on the floor of the lab, Charlie snoring as usual. Astrid had stuffed tissues in her ears and was sleeping peacefully against the tank, wrapped up in blankets. Broyles had taken up watch duty, peering out the barred windows now and then, but had settled down on a stool.

Walter couldn't sleep either and had put his genius mind to use trying to make an ultrasound device so they could see the baby in Olivia.

Olivia moved a stool and sat next to Broyles, both in silence for several minutes before Broyles spoke,

"In any other situation I would be telling you to take leave, to rest, be normal. But this isn't any other situation. Congratulations, Dunham."

"Peter's been at me for normal too." She smiled at the memory,

"He's right. A woman in your condition shouldn't be wielding a gun and running around chasing creatures. You should be sleeping, caring for you and your child."

"I know." She looked at the floor, she knew that she was putting the baby at risk but what else was she to do, "I can't just sit down and let everyone else around me take the fall. We're in this together. We started this by letting the first hybrid-creature escape, I can't just _not_ do anything for something _we_ caused."

"You don't need to plead your case to me, Dunham. I've known you long enough to know that when you set your mind of something, you won't give up until you get it. You're stubborn and that's why you're a good agent. You never give up, you stand your ground. But sometimes, especially in our current situation, you need to let others help you, you need to relax and let everybody else do their jobs, let Peter care for you."

"I don't _want_ to be taken care of. I can do it myself."

"Olivia." Broyles turned and looked at Olivia, "You have a wonderful man who loves and adores you, who is willing to do anything for you.

"Even before the creatures, I could see the way he looked at you. Everyone could. It was obvious that he cared deeply about you. You were always happy when you were with him, on a case, at the Bureau, at the lab. He's loved you for a long time, Olivia. You just never saw that till now."

Olivia was about to protest when Walter jumped up from his seat, knocking it over.

"Agent Dunham! I've done it!" he cried excitedly,

"Walter, shhhh, people are trying to sleep." She walked over to Walter so he could speak quietly, "What is it, Walter?" she asked in a whisper,

"I've finished it."

"What is _it_?"

"Why, the ultrasound device, Agent Dunham. I had to build it from parts of the old portable x-ray and I think Peter's old stereo." He mumbled on about other nick-knacks he used.

"Dr. Bishop?" Broyles, interested in why he was over excited,

"We can see the baby!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together and jumping up and down. Walter turned to Olivia, taking her hand and pulling her towards the machine,

"I would like to test it, if you consent."

Sure, Olivia was nervous, but she nodded anyway.

Walter guided her to the chair. She leant back into it so she faced the ceiling, it was like a real dentist's chair, similar to the one she sat in whilst in Jacksonville, of course this time she wasn't pulled full of drugs.

Walter pushed a few buttons, pulled a few levers and the machine whirred quietly to life. He took out a small object,

"Walter, is that an iPhone?"

"Yes, Agent Dunham. The touch screen and the camera make it ideal for capturing the image once the x-rays penetrate the skin." he explained. Olivia looked at Broyles, not concerned but confused, Broyles just shrugged, be damned if he understood anything that came out of the old man's mouth.

The iPhone flickered to life, "I'll have to make some sort of solar powering device, for when the battery on this device runs out." He made a mental note. Walter was big on solar power, he liked having lights on at night, so he could work.

"Agent Dunham?" Walter asked, turning away from his machine, "Can you please lift your shirt?"

Olivia reluctantly complied and Walter placed the iPhone against Olivia's bare abdomen. The image on the screen of the machine behind Walter was fuzzy, covered with static. Fiddling with some of the dials and buttons, Walter managed to clear up the image.

And there it was. A small head, barely visible. Walter held the iPhone in place, taking a screen shot of the image.

Olivia just stared in bewilderment at the screen. It was amazing. They were having a baby. Olivia couldn't help it, her emotions flooded through her, a single tear escaping her, running down her cheek. She sucked in a sharp breath, gathering her thoughts.

"Agent Dunham?" Walter was worried, she hadn't spoken since they had started,

"Ah, yeah, Walter?" she snapped back to reality, her eyes not leaving the screen, watching the baby.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, Walter." She smiled, another tear streaming down her face. Taking Walter's hand, she squeezed it reassuringly. He beamed at her enthusiastically, no doubt in his mind he was singing again.

Broyles watched the emotions played through her face. He knew her well enough to know that she never showed emotions, but in this moment, he saw more emotions from her then he had in the several years they knew each other.

From what Walter could tell from the image his device produced, the baby was fine.

She sighed, comforted sightly. Olivia relaxed into the chair, her hand holding her stomach protectively.

_A/N: Hope you enjoyed, don't forget reviewing is the best Christmas present for a fan-fiction writer _

_Merry Christmas everyone, enjoy your holidays, _


	9. April 2012

_A/N: So I was able to upload this, thank goodness for McDonald's and their free wifi :) _

_Note:__ In case anyone was wondering, I wanted a Walter/Olivia moment and Broyles/Olivia moment in the last chapter with her and the ultrasound (rarely do we see moments with those three with just emotions, and not their tough exteriors)_

_References to 2x15 Jacksonville. _

_BTW this is my second attempt at Walter's full-on scientific stuff. If you don't understand, just message me or say so in a review and I'd be happy to clear it up in non-Walter English :) _

**Chapter Eight**

**April 2012**

"No, Walter. It's final!" Peter shouted across the lab as he walked away from his father. Walter was having one of his lucid moments (well lucid week). He had found a full bag of Cortexiphan they had brought back from their visit to Jacksonville. Along with Walter's exploration of the rest of Harvard, he had found (and dragged all the way back to the lab) several needles, IV wires and several types of anaesthetic. When questioned about it, Walter just ignored them. It wasn't till several days later did Walter's true motives become known. He wanted to reactivate Olivia's abilities, her pyrokinesis.

"But Son, those creatures are 'allergic' as such to sunlight, UV light, fire even."

"What does this have to do with Olivia?" Peter was becoming impatient with his father. A genius man, but sometimes he dawdled, taking longer than needed to get to the point.

"When Olivia, was a child," Walter mumbled, gathering his thoughts, trying to place things, "when Belly and I, _experimented_" he choked on that word, "on her, she developed a pyrotechnic ability. Well, you saw the room, _she_ did that."

"I will ask once more, what does this have to do with Olivia?"

"If I can help her unlock, that ability again, we can use her to stop the creatures. If these creatures are developing, maturing at the rate we believe, they will be able to 'see' Olivia as a mortal threat and will not venture near. Just as though they have deemed this lab impregnable, they have not tried in many months to enter. They 'know' that they cannot enter and therefore do not try."

"You may be a genius, but you are an arrogant man. All you ever think about is your experiments, you never think about what your experiments do to everyone else. I will NOT let you touch Olivia or our child. Stay away from her." Peter yelled at the feeble man.

Olivia watched from the door of the office, Ella hiding behind her body as the two men yelled at each other. Charlie, Broyles and Astrid sided with Peter, while John couldn't help but wonder 'If there were no risk to Olivia or the baby, would it help their situation?'. No one could deny, the thought had crossed all of their minds, but they all knew that with Walter, there would be side effects of some sort. John was the only one brave enough to speak it,

"Can you guarantee that Olivia, _and_ the baby will not be harmed?" John questioned,

"Yes." Walter nodded strongly, completely certain, "she will only feel slightly tired for a few hours, I would recommend she take a sleeping pill, and I will give her an anaesthetic so that neither she nor the baby will feel the first signs of her ability."

"What are the first signs her ability is returning?" John continued to ask,

"It's not so much returning as it is awakening." Walter explained this in his 'I know exactly what I am doing' voice. His (as Peter and Ella called it) Grown Up voice.

"Just like when we needed her to unlock her ability to see objects from the other side. It was fear that was holding her back then, now it's the lack of Cortexiphan."

They had crowed around Walter now as he rambled on, Olivia too had walked silently, unnoticed from the office towards Walter, so she, too, may hear.

"The Cortexiphan has very slowly, over time, been reduced to the amount it now is. There is only less then 20mls in her system, it remained because the body didn't see it as a virus or foreign liquid anymore, her body is use to it being there, especially now since she has used it.

"There are three stages to her 'awakening' and controlling her ability. First stage will be the sudden fever; her body will heat up, her hands will possible catch fire or cause whatever they touch to catch fire. Then, will come to cold sweats, and finally she will be able to 'click' her fingers," Walter clicked his fingers as he spoke, bouncing on his feet, "and flames will appear. This will happen in the course of 24 hours. By the next day, Olivia will be in complete control of her fire ability."

"And once she has her ability again, what will that do to the baby?" Broyles had become interested now. With limited ammunition, they needed to consider any and all safe options for fighting the creatures that stalked them as food.

"Not you too!" Peter exploded, "No one is touching her or the baby. There will be no experiments on _anyone_."

"The baby will not be harmed, but with Olivia nearing her third trimester, the baby may inherit the ability from Olivia."

"No, Walter. For the last time, No."

"I'll do it." Everyone turned, looking at Olivia with either confusion or amazement that she had agreed.

"No, Liv, don't do it. It's not worth you and the baby's life." Peter pleaded,

"Peter, how long do you think we can stay in here? How long before we run out of bullets and the creatures come? We need another way to defend ourselves. Life is full of risks, and even I we weren't in this situation, I'd still be working, I'd still be risking my life to protect others." And with a quick kiss, Peter knew that with Olivia, being stubborn-as-hell Olivia, nothing he would say would change her mind.

"But I want you to watch the baby, through Walter's ultrasound device, make sure it's okay." Peter spoke to Astrid. Astrid nodded in agreement.

Olivia had joked to Peter that if anything went wrong, that they could feed Walter to the creatures. Walter made all the preparations and once Olivia was comfortable in the chair, he attached the IV with Cortexiphan to her arm. It was similar to the tank, a drowsy sleep-type feeling. That feeling like you know you're on the verge of sleep but just by thinking that you wake up.

"I don't want to use the sensory deprivation tank with Olivia in her condition, so I'll add a few other drugs to induce a dream like state to get her to find her 'trigger' before introducing fresh Cortexiphan." Walter explained, as he injected another needle into Olivia's arm.

He turned his attention back to Olivia, "Now, Agent Dunham, I want you to think back, to when you were a child. What do you remember?"

Olivia moved in the chair, her eyes fluttering open and closed.

"I see, I see you, and Nick's there too. It's Monday afternoon, we're being given our daily injections. Cortexiphan. Nick's crying, we all start crying."

"Nick was the first to develop an ability, projecting his emotions. As the eldest, the others looked up to him, he helped keep them calm." Walter explained to the others as they all watched. Charlie looked a little squeamish. Needles reminded him of his painful treatment to rid his body of the worm/offspring.

"Olivia, do you remember the fire, in your bedroom?"

"Yes."

"Tell me, how did you feel?"

"Hot. My hands, are burning. I can feel the heat but there are no flames. I smell the smoke be see no fire. It was there one second and gone the next. The room blackened ash."

"Can you remember how you were feeling before it happened?"

"Happy. Nick and I were playing hide and seek. He hadn't found me because I had never hidden in my room before, he didn't know I was there." Olivia suddenly shifted in the chair.

"Olivia, my dear, what is wrong?" Walter's voice full of concern.

"I hear footsteps. They're not Nick's. I know his footsteps, as I know Doctor Bells and yours." Olivia moved her head, "Someone walks past the door, looks in. They see me, but they don't enter. They wave at me. Their eyes are a hollow black. No soul inside. The person glimmers, like the objects in the play room. He disappears seconds later. I sit in the corner, I'm-I'm crying. I'm scared. I'm always scared. I feel the flames around me. You and Doctor Bell say it was an accident. That I didn't mean too."

Olivia didn't remember what she had seen, what she had said. Peter had told her that it was fear. Walter was confident that once she unlocked it that first time, that she would be able to control it without having to be afraid every time.

The fever and the sweats came on fast, lasting on a few hours.

Night fell and Astrid had put Ella to bed, telling her that her Aunt Liv was just unwell. John and Broyles had finally agreed to sleep instead of keep watch, letting Peter and Charlie do so. Peter not wanting to sleep in case of something with Olivia occurred.

Olivia sat in the bean bag, stroking her belly. Peter had taken to talking to the baby, Charlie singing nursery rhymes.

Every now and then Olivia would click her fingers, Walter said that clicking would be the easiest way to tell, flame or no flame. But, for the last 4 hours, nothing.

Olivia was going to give up. Peter was slumped over asleep next to Olivia, his hand resting on her stomach. The baby had been kicking for an hour straight, so Peter had taken up residence next to Olivia, talking to it, calming it.

Charlie sat, gun safety on placed on the table as he played cards. It was the usual, a few howls and cries from the creatures, nothing that woke the group anymore. They had become accustomed to it.

Olivia clicked her fingers, a small bright yellow and orange flame flicked just above her finger tips. Olivia waved her free hand through it, it didn't burn her, she felt no pain.

She could control it. Maybe there was hope.


	10. July 2012 part 1

_**Okay, so I'm jumping forward a few months because I honestly couldn't think of anything for the months in between. For peace of mind, nothing major has happened in between. **_

_**Also, as I've said before, I'm Australian, so I'm not sure what Summer is like for America, this is just how summer is for us (hot, sticky, and uncomfortable).**_

_**I got the 'baby kicking/rejection' idea while I was watching a Friends episode from Season 8 (Rachel's baby and Chandler moment). Not sure what episode, but if you've seen the series, you'll probably know it.**_

_**PREVIOUSLY**_

_Olivia clicked her fingers, a small bright yellow and orange flame flicked just above her finger tips. Olivia waved her free hand through it, it didn't burn her, she felt no pain. _

_She could control it. Maybe there was hope._

**May **

**June**

**July 2012**

Peter had worked out the due date to be 26th August, leaving Olivia with only 4 weeks left. She had become quite grumpy, hardly being able to move, needing the go to the toilet every hour, like clockwork. Ella had written her Aunt Liv a book she could read to the baby once it was born. Olivia had been worried at first, as Ella had drawn the creatures killing everyone but Uncle Peter and Aunt Liv had fought them off, saving the world.

Broyles had practically ordered Olivia (because she refused when asked to) to refrain from any dangerous activities, guns and had banned Walter from any of his potions and possibly lethal cocktails.

Olivia sat curled up against the wall. She rubbed her hand against her huge belly as the baby moved around. No matter how many times Olivia tried to sleep, the baby would kick her awake again. She had found the most comfortable position to be legs crossed against the hard, cold walls of the lab.

As the days grew longer, and the air becoming hot and sticky, humid, Olivia found it harder to get comfortable.

Astrid had found shorts, huge shorts, which fitted over her waist with no strain or pain. Olivia, being Olivia, had made a face at the large dress Astrid had found, opting for the shorts and shirt instead. Astrid took the dress. By the end of most days, the lab was sticky, everyone was sweaty and uncomfortable. What was remained in the water tanks was saved for drinking. Showers only occurred when one of the guys would return with large quantities of water that could replace whatever they used to shower with.

When night fell, everyone relished in the cold, crisp air. Ella had become more 'active' around the lab. Helping Walter with his Ultrasound device on Olivia and even going out with Peter during the day. Olivia only allowed her to go when it was midday, making sure that she had a torch with her as a 'just in case'.

The lab became dark again and Olivia had the pleasure of lighting the fire in the several barrels used around the lab for warmth and light. She would often just sit in a corner and playing with the fire she'd create. She'd learnt to create balls, and having mastered rolling it around, throwing it in the air and catching it. It was entertaining not only for Olivia, but for the others to watch.

Sometimes, Olivia could swear the baby knew when she lit fire in her hands. It wasn't pain, but it just knew. The baby would toss and turn in her stomach, and when she let the flame die, the moving would stop. Neither Olivia, nor Peter could figure out whether the baby was in distress over the fire or excited.

John sat guard this cold night. Ella and Astrid asleep in the office. (Ella had gotten use to sleeping without Olivia nearby, with Olivia's frequent bathroom trips and her new found ability; it was safer, not to mention quieter, for Olivia to sleep away from her)

Charlie and Broyles were slumped against the walls on opposite sides of the lab doors (as usual – they reckoned if they sat there, one of them would hear the creatures in the hall if it came to that).

In the corner, on the tattered mattress, Peter was spooning Olivia. His hand was under her shirt. John could see his fingers softly stroking Olivia's stomach as they slept.

John wasn't sure it Olivia knew it, but her left hand was outstretched away from her and Peter's bodies, her fingers silently clicking. 'Click', flame, 'Click', no flame, 'Click', flame... She had been doing that since Broyles had swapped shifts with John, around midnight. John wondered if it was habit now, the finger clicking.

She'd been doing it everyone other day. John could see it in her eyes, the flame produced was mesmerising, moving through the air, rolling, flames of all sorts of colours, reds, yellows, oranges. Sometimes, when Olivia was extremely happy, the flame would turn a hot blue. Looking over at the remains of the wooden desk, John couldn't help but smile. She'd been sitting on the desk, now burnt wood and ash, watching Charlie as he had his ear against her belly, talking to the baby.

He was asking the most random things, favourite colours, foods, yes and no questions. Every time the baby would kick on the answer it liked (or what they thought was the answer they liked – the kick could mean dislike, who knew?) When he asked the baby who its favourite person was, Uncle Charlie or Aunt Astrid, the baby kicked really hard on 'Astrid', knocking Charlie back in shock. They were all in hysterics; even Broyles couldn't contain his laughter. Who wouldn't be laughing, Charlie had been rejected by an unborn baby.

The desk had caught alight in seconds, reduced to ash in mere minutes.

If Olivia could burn a desk because of laughter, Walter had obsessed for days over what would happen when Olivia was angry. Astrid had asked if she could cause something to explode. They moved everything flammable and anything that could go 'ka-BOOM' away from Olivia's sleeping area, as a precaution.

Peter knew, that just by denying Walter the idea of experimenting with Olivia's ability and her emotions, Walter would be more determined to do it.

Olivia had agreed to let Walter put her in the tank, run a few exams, check to see everything was alright between her and the baby, how her ability was developing. The amount of information Walter collected from just an hour in the tank was enough to keep him entertained for the coming days, Peter anticipated at least 3 days.

Walter began testing Olivia's 'fire' power. What she could burn, how hot she could create it, how well her control over it was. (Yes, Walter got his way.) Soon Walter wanted to test her on a creature. He reluctantly agreed on a deceased creature.

They hadn't seen or heard the creatures in a very long time. This meant Broyles, John, Charlie and Peter had to go outside and hunt one down.

**NEXT: How they get a creature and Peter gets to meet their child, before it's born.**

**A/N: I literally had to force myself not to right dialogue. I have a disease, dialog-itis (as I like to call it). I tend to write dialogue heavy chapters without descriptive paragraphs. **


	11. July 2012 part 2

_**PREVIOUSLY:**_

_**They hadn't seen or heard the creatures in a very long time. This meant Broyles, John, Charlie and Peter had to go outside and hunt one down. **_

**July 2012 part 2**

Broyles had decided that with 2 hours of dark left, it gave them enough time to go out, get one and bring it back as dawn came around. The men were armed to the teeth, each with 2 semi automatics and a 9mm clipped to their legs, Broyles had grenades and extra ammo, Charlie and John had the bottles of oil. Peter carried rope over his shoulder. They'd need something to get it back with.

But, at Walter's request, their torches and lighters outnumbered their weapons. Walter had doused the three men's belts in an extremely bright fluorescent substance. Their entire bodies literally glowed.

"How do we look?" Charlie asked enthusiastically,

Both Astrid and Olivia had the same answer, "Glow worms!"

They had also hung several glow sticks on string around their necks.

Charlie had modified several of the guns, adding on aerosol cans and lighters. They were to open the lighters before entering the dark, that way all they had to do was pull on the trigger and, BAM instant flamethrower. Charlie was rather proud it had worked.

"Agent Farnsworth, when we come back," Broyles started, "_if_ we come back, we'll need you to keep Ella locked in the office, put a lit barrel with her and give her the torch, she'll be safer in there then out in the lab." He turned to Olivia, "Dunham, I would recommend you stay in there with her till we are ready, but... I know you'll ignore it."

"Of course I'll ignore it." She stood, hands on her hips, stubborn.

"Liv, please," Peter pleaded to her, "Just—just stay in the office until its safe. Please!"

Olivia looked into his eyes, he rarely pleaded with her, for anything. She sighed in defeat.

Peter kissing her passionately, "Make sure you come back." She whispered,

"Son!" Walter called after them, "Alive, would be best. Even unconscious." He asked, hopeful. Peter couldn't make any promises.

The four men walked across the campus grounds. The girls watched from the safety of the lab's windows as their glowing figures walked further and further away.

"So, anyone have a plan?" Charlie asked nervously. To be honest, he was scared shitless.

"Use the oil to make lines, light it and trap the creature. Then I guess we just shoot it till it stops moving." John suggested.

They walked for what seemed like forever. Endless darkness, the moonlight barely made visible the crumbled buildings that surrounded them.

There was a deep growl, emanating from behind them, and moving around, circling them. At the same instant, the three men cocked their guns, Charlie lighting the lighter on his, ready to release hell.

"Damn, son of a bitches are stalking us. This is why I always slept with a light on as a kid." John growled,

"You? scared of the dark! Nooo!" Charlie exclaimed sarcastically.

"I use to be scared of the dark. When I was 9, I'd make my mother leave the hall light on, just so I could see that there was nothing out there." Broyles spoke, "I knew that there wasn't anything out there but I think it was the _possibility_ that there _could_ be something out there, was what really scared me."

"Seaweed." Peter stated. The three men turned and stared at him. The glow sticks lighting their confused faces, "Ever since I was little, whenever Walter would take me to the beach, according to him I refused to go in the water if there was seaweed. He said it was because I didn't know what was hiding in it."

Talking about their fears helped them relax more. They didn't need anyone getting trigger happy every time a creature growled.

They could hear the creatures, but not see them. They needed to find one that was by itself. Broyles was about to call it, to tell them to go back to the lab when the soft growl of a creature distracted him. The creature's eyes glistened in the glow of the green fuzzy glow that consumed them. Close enough to barely see, further enough away that it wasn't hurt by the light.

There were other creatures around, but what much of a choice did they have. Since the world was destroyed, even Broyles had thrown the ol' rule book and safety rules out the window. Usually, the lives of his agents was first priority, but now, whenever they stepped outside, they were always at risk, no point in trying to protect them.

The first clip of bullets were aimed at its back legs. Only Charlie fired. Save ammunition.

"John." Charlie called. He moved back a bit, reloading his semi-automatic.

John pulled out the first bottle of oil, throwing it and Charlie shooting it as it hit the ground. The street lit up like a Christmas tree. They could clearly see dozens of creatures had surrounded them. They all howled and screeched as they ran away from the light. The lone creature was pinned against a wall, trapped, burning.

The creature launched itself at John, he was the closest. Scratching, trying to dig into his flesh. Broyles and Peter opened fire. The creature was small, it didn't take long for it to fall to the ground, defeated. It was alive, barely.

"Here, tie these around its neck, stop it from moving." Peter handed John his glow stick necklace. The creature shrieked as the light touched its skin. This startled them. It was in pain. They quickly secured the rope to each of its legs.

"Let's get it back before more come." Broyles stated. Grabbing the ropes, the four men started the long walk/drag back to the lab.

**A/N: Anyway, hope it was okay. Writing 101, write what you know. Seaweed scares the bajebbas out of me. Though for some strange reason I am perfectly fine with swimming with sharks and sting rays :D **

****Okay, so I have a few ideas for titles, so as the readers/reviewers, it is your duty to CHOOSE! (I suck at titles. Help me, please!) **

**Keep the one it has – In 10 Months**

**After Judgement Day**

**A Fight For New Life (recommended by FringeDivision) **

–**other-**

**If any of you have other title names, tell me :) If you like a suggestiong from a review, just tell me the name of the reviewer or their title. **

**Basically, most vote wins. **

**Review please 3 **


	12. August 2012 part 1

**A/N: This chapter's been bugging me a lot lately, (hence the long update) it's not how I exactly planned this chapter to happen, how to add in the Preface, but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting. **

**IMPORTANT**

**Note the date of this chapter. This is the day of the events in the Preface (first chapter). I'll mark when the preface is and I have added it in again so the chapter and the next one run together with a jump. **

**August 3****rd**** 2012**

Using the creature as a test subject, Walter determined that Olivia's fire power (no pun intended) varied depending on her emotions. The highest she could get was 40o, but Walter believed she could go up to 60o Celsius (140 Fahrenheit), but both Olivia and Peter refused to even try because of the baby.

With the new knowledge that the light actually burns them, not just repels them, Walter wanted to harness Olivia's power in 'bottles' as he said. If they had a fire weapon that could be used to kill the creatures, they may survive just a little longer.

"Walter, we said no!" Olivia exclaimed for the umpteenth time that hour. As Walter began to protest, and Olivia prepared to yell at him again, she felt a sharp pain in her stomach.

She stood still, pain rippled across her face; her hand clutched her stomach, her eyes wide. Walter was still rambling, un-noticing of Olivia's pain. John was the first one to notice.

"Liv, you alright?" he asked over Walter's voice.

Everyone in the lab instantly turned, conversing on Olivia. They were all throwing questions at her.

"Olivia, what's wrong?"

"Liv, where's the pain?"

The pained look on her face vanished and she stood straight again,

"It's okay. The baby's been doing that every now and then, I think it's just turning over, or something." She waved it off.

"Well, why don't you go into the sensory deprivation tank? Talk to the baby, you can figure out what's wrong." Walter suggested,

"That's not such a bad idea, but no drugs Walter." Olivia agreed,

Olivia stripped down to her underwear and bra, her belly protruding way past her tiny figure.

She slipped into the water, Walter closing the doors.

20 minutes later, Olivia exited the tank.

"Nothing. Nothing happened, I couldn't see the baby." She complained, she was on the verge of tears, thinking something was wrong.

"Maybe it's because the baby is in you. Not like when we were accessing your mind, this is part of you, 'mind, body and soul'."

"What if I went in with her?" Peter spoke up,

Peter stripped and climbed into the tank, Olivia floating beside him.

Peter could feel a surge of energy between him and Olivia. Olivia was sleeping, _is that the right word for it?_ he wondered, peacefully next to him.

He found himself standing in the middle of a sky blue . . . place.

Looking around he saw a small child. A boy, couldn't be more then 7, maybe 8 years old.

"Hi, Daddy." The child spoke.

Peter was lost for words, "You're my son? We're having a boy" he managed to choke.

The child simply nodded.

The child looked happy and healthy. He was the spitting image of Olivia. Blonde hair, soft skin, but he had Peter's eyes.

"Do you have a name?"

"You haven't named me yet. You'll know my name when I'm born."

"When will you be born?" Peter asked, better safe than sorry. Baby's had a tendency to 'not like their due dates' and pain their mothers by waiting another week or coming early.

"Don't worry, I'll be born when you need me the most."

This confused Peter. But he didn't have a chance to ask before the child spoke again,

"Tell mum that I'm just moving around a bit, it's nothing to worry about." The child waved goodbye as Peter was pulled back into the land of the conscious.

Everyone was eagerly waiting as Peter helped Olivia out of the tank.

Once the two were dressed again Astrid spoke first, "So...?"

"It's a boy. He didn't tell me his name," Peter turned to Olivia, "He's happy and healthy. He's just moving around that's all."

Olivia couldn't help the onslaught of tears that now streamed down her face.

"A boy, we're having a boy?" she asked with a huge smile.

"Yeah," Peter titled her chin so she looked up at him. The kiss was soft and passionate. The circle around them dissipated, giving them _some_ privacy.

POPOPOPOPOP

The rest of the day went by without any problems. Astrid, Ella and Walter played games with the deck of cards. Broyles, John, Peter and Charlie were cleaning their collection of guns, preparing for the night.

Charlie looked at the falling sun out the window. They had about 2 hours before the sun set and all hell broke loose.

Since they 'kidnapped' (creature-napped?) one of the creatures, the others have been attacking with all they've got, a deranged type of revenge. Broyles and John had counted 18 the previous night, and 14 of them attacked. Charlie killed 3, John 5 and Broyles 3. No doubt, they would have to do something and soon otherwise they were in trouble.

John and Peter had spent the first half of the day searching the city for any other place they could move to that had equal or better protection for them. They came up empty, but vowed to search again the following day.

John and Peter's relationship was better. John, no longer arrogant, was now caring and accepting. They were good friends now, both caring for Olivia's safety, and now the baby's safety.

Charlie stood, looking around the lab.

"Hey, Peter. Where's Olivia?" he asked, a slight hint of concern in his voice.

"She's down the hall. Sleeping, away from the noise."

"I'll get her."

"Down the hall, right at the office and then the eighth door on the left. There's a storage room that had a bed in it."

Charlie followed Peter's directions. The door was ajar slightly and Charlie could see the sleeping figure of Olivia. The rise and fall of her stomach from under the sheet told him she was sleeping peacefully, unlike the last few nights with the creatures.

He walked in, kneeling beside her and gently waking her.

"Hey, Liv. Time to go," But she didn't wake. Instead she rolled over mumbling something about staying.

Charlie sighed in defeat. He couldn't wake her. She was _finally_ sleeping, and she looked so calm, unburdened. He bent over, picking her up in her arms.

Charlie carried her back to the lab, placing her on the bundle of worn mattresses and blankets they had put together for her and the baby.

She settled on the, none the wiser about the change in setting. She curled up against a bunched up blanket, hugging it close to her body.

It had only been an hour since Charlie had moved her into the lab, when she woke with extreme pain in her stomach. Sweat lined her forehead and her hands clutching at her stomach.

"Peter." She called out.

Peter turned away from the gun on the table, looking over at Olivia.

"Yeah?"

"Peter, Peter, Peter! Something's wrong. It hurts."

Peter rushed to her side, taking her hand.

"Peter, it hurts." She stifled a groan of pain.

"Liv—" Peter started but stopped when he felt the part of the mattresses near his leaning hand dampen. Olivia looked down, her face full of shock.

"I think you're water just broke." Peter stated, watching the emotions play across her face. Shock, confusion, shock again, pain...

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no! I still have 2 weeks."

"Liv, I think the baby is coming."

"No, not now, not now, Peter." He voice was full of desperation,

"Charlie, can you get me some warm water and a towel, Astrid I need you to clear off a corner of the lab, put down clean blankets for Olivia."

"Son, is something wrong?" None had noticed Olivia's current state, all occupied with their own devices.

"Olivia's water just broke. She's going into labour."

The second the word 'labour' left his mouth, everyone started moving, trying to do something to help.

Peter hurried to move Ella and Walter into the office. Astrid helped Olivia hobble over the blankets. Just as she sat down a contraction hit. It wasn't what her sister had told her they were like. They hurt, a LOT! But Rachel had painkillers, nurses, a _hospital_! She had the right people and equipment when she went through labour. Olivia didn't. She was stuck in the lab with night approaching.

As teh sun neared its horizon decent, Charlie remembered,

"We forget the alarms! We forgot the frickin' alarms!"

"Astrid watch over Olivia for me." Peter kissed Olivia quickly, "I'll be back in a minute."

The men ran out of the lab. They had developed an early warning system in case the creatures got into the hallways of Havard. It would tell them how close they were and give them a chance to set up a defence near the lab doors. But this night, they had been so preoccupied with Olivia that they nearly forgot. It was nearly dark and they were racing against time to set it up. Several rope-wire floor triggers would set off a series of 'bell' noises every time one was tripped. There was a different noise for how close they got. This had been set up since the creatures had become bolder in their attacks. It wasn't perfect but it was safest.

Astrid sat with Olivia, trying to coax her into sitting upright and preparing her for delivery.

**^^**-Okay this is where the Preface comes in.-**^^ **

"Hey, Olivia, look at me? Don't go to sleep, look at me!" Astrid's voice called to her.

Olivia Dunham. She never showed pain, she never showed weakness, she never gave up. The end of the world and ten months of surviving it can change a person.

Olivia was slumped over on the floor of the Walter's lab. Her back resting against the wall, her knees at her chest. Astrid was knelt at her feet, struggling to keep her awake.

"No, no, Astrid, let me sleep, please. I want to sleep." She begged her. But Astrid refused to let her. She wiped her forehead with a wet washer, stroking her cheek calmingly.

"Liv, sweetie, I need to you push now. Okay?" Astrid instructed. She had laid old clothing and towels down to make the floor more comfortable. Laying Olivia down as best she could, she knelt between her legs. The tattered ends of the blue dress Olivia worn, falling to her waist.

Olivia muffled a scream, "Ahhhhhh! It hurts, Astrid, make it stop!" she begged her as another contraction hit. Olivia was panting and sweating madly.

"Liv, there's no more painkillers, you'll have to tough it out, come on, just breathe. I need to you push, come on, Olivia." Astrid tried to keep a smile on her face, to reassure not only Olivia, but also herself. She was scared out of her mind about delivering the baby.

Astrid had read through whatever books on pregnancy remained in the decaying ruins of the library. Little information that had survived, told Astrid just enough to deliver the baby safely, but in their current situation, the baby was safer inside Olivia then in . . . in this horrid place the world had become. No child should be born into such a place.

"No, not yet. I'm so tired, Astrid." Olivia struggled in Astrid's arms. She looked over shoulder, out the broken window. The sun was setting and her eyes suddenly became wide with fear. "Astrid!" she called desperately.

"What, what's wrong sweetie?"

"Astrid, the sun!" Astrid followed Olivia's stare.

"Oh no!"

As the sun disappeared, and Boston was plunged into darkness, gunshots ringed out through the lab. The cry and howling of the creatures outside caused an already panicked Ella to start crying. Ella and Walter were huddled up in the office, Walter having wrapped a blanket around Ella to keep her warm. He started singing, trying to get her to fall asleep. It had started to work until a loud scream echoed down to the office from behind the doors to the lab. Ella crawled into Walter's arms. Walter had become a 'better man', he was more understanding, more thoughtful and cared dearly for Ella. Always talking to her, calming her, entertaining her.

The fire in the middle of the room flickered, giving the room an extra eeriness.

There was shouting and a tormenting silence, before Charlie Francis, John Scott and Peter Bishop crashed through the doors of the lab. They stood just feet from the door, guns armed, prepared to shoot whatever came through them.

"Where is he?" Peter yelled,

More gunfire erupted followed by the shrill cries of the creatures dying.

Seconds later Broyles dived through the door, sliding onto the floor, shooting several rounds at the looming creatures that stalked him. They shrieked as the bullets tore through their skin, backing off slightly; allowing Charlie and John enough time to deadlock and secure the door.

The creatures pounded on the door, like they did every night when the sun went down.

Peter immediately ran to Olivia's side, holding her hand. She squeezed it, hard, as another contraction shook through her delicate body.

Charlie did what he could, wiping her forehead, keeping her cool. Broyles and John stood guard, watching out the windows, watching the creatures do their usual hunt for anything moving, hunting for meat.

"There's more of them tonight." John noted aloud. There were at least a dozen circling the buildings.

"Well, we're probably the only people for miles; we're like a buffet for these . . . creatures. I mean, seriously, what the hell are they?" Charlie asked, turning towards Walter as he closed the door to the office with a now sleeping Ella.

"I believe these creatures are more evolved then their parents, the creature's that we first encountered." Walter began to explain, "They have developed more for hunting, and they have heightened senses and strategic attack methods. We can fight them off, but at the way they breed, we won't be able to out run them, unless we find a poison to kill them. Maybe some kind of gas . . . or, or liquid, in their drinking supply?" Walter began rambling several formulas.

"Hate to bust your mood Walter, but I have a baby trying to get out over here!" Olivia cried, she rubbed her large stomach, trying to calm the baby. She was determined to keep it in. Holding her legs to her chest again, breathing evenly.

It couldn't come out, not now, not just yet. She would make him wait until daylight, it wasn't safe, but it was safer than during the night.

"Oh, yes right, Agent Dunham." Walter said, suddenly remembering the pregnant blond women.

"John, third window!" Broyles shouted,

John ran to the third window from the left; a creature was peering through, clawing at the bars. He shot it, killing it with ease.

"You know, they're getting sloppy, or we're just getting better at killing them." John beamed. John had been happier killing the creatures; he was less aggravated towards Peter, and had backed off trying to get Olivia back, especially since she became pregnant.

John turned his back to the window, smiling widely at the group, bragging mentally about his 89th kill.

Olivia looked up at him, smiling. She then noticed two huge black eyes peering through the bars, glistening from the light of the small fire they had built.

"John!" she called to him, trying to warn him.

It was too late. Thick claws sliced through the gap in the bars, cutting into John's back, ripping his shirt and cutting deep into his flesh.

Broyles killed it instantly, and then firing warning shots out the window for other to hear. John's body slumped to the floor, blood pooling from his wounds in his back.

"Astrid, help him!" Peter ordered, taking over her position as she tended to John.

Astrid was the only one, other than Walter who knew how to properly tend to deep flesh wounds. She applied pressure, wrapping and bandaging what she could.

Olivia had gone from breaking Astrid's fingers, to Peter's, squeezing his hand as the 8th contraction in the last 10 minutes came.

"Peter! Peter, Peter, Peter! I think its coming. The baby, he's coming!" she was scared, more likely terrified. She was giving birth to a baby, in the middle of a lab, during the middle of the night, whilst being attacked by creatures determined to kill and eat them, after the world had ended, and now John gravely injured. She wondered, _Could the night get any worse? _

Olivia regretted the thought instantly. Something would definitely go wrong now.

**A/N: Okay this was just to catch up to the events in the preface – the chapter after this will be up in an hour or so, cos I did this as one then decided to split it up since I added the preface again. **


	13. August 2012 part 2

**A/N: this is what happens directly after the preface. **

**I've also added in a part about the creatures and what their minds are – how their nature is. **

**August 3****rd**** 2012 **

**Part 2**

Olivia looked around her. It was like a slow motion moment in a film. John was wounded, on the floor bleeding. Olivia could see the terrified face of Ella as she and Walter huddled together in the office, her eyes squeezed shut, trying to block out everything. Broyles and Charlie were not holding back, they ripped through several ammunition packs in seconds.

John had become still, his body unmoving as Astrid did her best to stop the bleeding on his back. There were large, deep scratches that had torn up his shirt and were bleeding everywhere. Astrid managed to tie off the wounds, and keep John from falling unconscious. She had dragged him to the wall, away from the windows, keeping him awake.

"Olivia push, come on sweetheart, when the next contraction hits you have to push, okay?" Peter urged.

Olivia shook her head, her face scrunched up as the pain intensified.

"No, no, Peter, I can't. Not now." She protested.

Only a few hours had pasted since nightfall, and Olivia knew there was no way she could hold on until daybreak.

"Please, Olivia, just push." Peter was begging now. The quicker the baby was out, the quicker Peter could protect them both. He couldn't do that while Olivia was being stubborn as usual.

Hearing the pain in his voice; she did as she was told. She pushed when the contraction came, but she couldn't hide the scream of pain.

The scream echoed through the lab. The creatures outside heard it; they stopped and turned towards it. _There was something inside. Something in pain. Injured?_

There was no doubt that these creatures would be somewhat sentient. Walter was almost positive that they were on one level – predatory. Follow the wounded creature, find your prey.

Olivia was a wounded creature, she was in pain, and to them, most likely incapacitated. Easy prey.

They converged on the hallways of Harvard, following Olivia's screams. Searching.

They charged at the door, joining the others as they attacked the metal lab doors.

Pound. Pound. Pound.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Charlie turned, looking at the door. It moved.

The door never moved. The hinges were being pushed from their locks. This had never happened. It couldn't, no, shouldn't happen.

Olivia screamed again.

"Good, sweetheart. Also most there."

She pushed again,

Peter suddenly laughed, "Liv, I can, I can see his head. Keep going, you can do it." He was smiling now.

Olivia kept pushing, the pain was becoming unbearable. She started feel herself slipping, her body telling her to give up, the pain too much but then suddenly, the pressure in her stomach and pelvis released. It was gone, the pain, the pressure. She wanted to sleep, she was so tired.

But Olivia became distracted by the cries of an infant. An infant that was in Peter's arms.

"Peter, I want to see him." She reached out to Peter, trying to get closer.

"Her, Liv. It's a girl. I, I must have been wrong." He was just as shocked as she was.

The second Olivia took the baby, she stopped crying, recognising her mother, she nuzzled into her arms.

Peter looked around, he could see the others struggling. And Olivia saw it too.

"Go Peter. We're fine."

"Stay in the corner," he told her. Peter picked up the first weapon he could find, joining the others in their defence.

Olivia moved, huddled against the corner walls of the lab, the baby in her arms. She was completely oblivious to the violence that surrounded her, her attention fully focused on the baby in her arms.

She was snapped back to reality by the sound of metal crashing.

The lab door was now on the floor. The creatures didn't wait.

The first two fell to the floor as Broyles, Charlie and Peter turned away from the windows.

The creatures came into the lab, looming over them.

Broyles took the first blow, being thrown against the brick wall. Another creature jumped Charlie, tackling him to the floor. It bit down on his leg, and began dragging him out into the hall.

"PETER!" he screamed. Charlie clawed at the ground, trying to find something, anything to grab a hold of.

Peter chased after him, grabbing at Charlie, trying to pull him back. Charlie managed to grab a hold of the door frame, giving Peter the chance to shoot the creature.

Olivia looked down at her baby. Why did she have to be born in such a violent place? She squirmed in her arms. For the first time, the baby opened its eyes. She had blonde hair, like her mother, but she had Peter's eyes. They were large and innocent. Olivia desperately wanted to keep her innocent, to shield her from what was going on mere meters from where she was.

Peter started yelling as a creature attacked him, a claw stuck in his arm. When Olivia looked up she came face to face with a creature. Its black eyes staring at her, its face barely illuminated by the dying fire. It sniffed her. Why hadn't it killed her already? In fact, they hadn't killed any of them since they got into the lab.

What was she to this creature? Was she just food? Or did they see humans as a threat that needed to be extinguished? As the creature 'examined' her, Olivia could see why Walter though they were sentient. They had some level of thought, processing. Take out the most powerful of the group (Charlie, John, Peter and Broyles.) and then go after the weaker ones.

The creature became distracted by Peter's cries and the bullets ripping into its skin. turning, the creature snarled and stomped over to Peter.

Olivia couldn't help the tears, she was scared. She didn't want Peter to die; she didn't want her friends to die. She didn't want their daughter to die.

Olivia could feel heat building in her body. Her hands becoming hotter and hotter, burning. But the baby didn't cry from the pain. She realised she could shield them from the heat. That meant she could shield the others as well.

Olivia pulled her daughter against her chest, cradling her. She closed her eyes, trying to breathe evenly.

Her entire body started to heat up, glowing slightly.

As the creature advanced on Peter, the room suddenly grew bright. The heat exploded from Olivia's body. The entire room was engulfed in flames. The creatures 'evaporating' of sorts as the light and flames burnt them, destroying them. Their shrieks erupted everywhere, as the creatures in the hallways and outside were hit as well.

Once the flames died down Olivia finally took a deep breath. It had worked.

The lab was now blackened with ash. Most of the furniture and mattresses were burnt or destroyed. But everyone was alive. Ella and Walter could be seen in the office; Astrid cradled John's head in her lap. He was alive, the rise and fall of his chest proved it. Charlie nursed his wounded leg, Peter, his arm. Broyles was regaining consciousness. A desk and mattress were still burning, providing a small amount of light.

The baby in Olivia's arms started crying. Olivia tried to 'shush' her, rocking her gently. Peter managed to stand, clutching his arm to his chest, stumbling towards her and their daughter.

"Hi," Peter smiled at the baby, brushing a finger across her cheek. She moved under the touch, one tiny hand wrapping around his finger, holding it.

Peter looked up at Olivia, sighing in relief.

He let out a laugh, smiling at her, "You did it."

"Come here."

Olivia pulled him to her, kissing him with all she had.

**A/N: okay, name time. Tell me name you want. I plan on having 'Rachel' as her middle name. So far Olive is the best I've got. **

**I think this story may have 3-4 chapters left, maybe more depending on reviews and where I want to go with it. **

**By now I'm sure you're all aware that I SUCK at updates, but reviews are nice and there you can badger/nag me to update.**

**The holidays have been messing with my head. It's true what people say 'school is the reason you remember the date'. But don't worry once school starts again my update routine will be back to normal. **


	14. October 2012 part 1

**A/N: I want to thank everyone who reviewed with name suggestions, and comments, they make me feel loved, and that this is worth it. **

**The name I have chosen was suggested by ****Fringe Friend**** – the name meaning 'the product of fire'.**

**Thanks to ****Above and beyond**** for nagging me :D**

**And to ****mfaerie 32**** (Jen) – who was wondering why I changed the gender of the baby – Meh, I just felt like it, sort of a last minute thought, surprise twist I guess :P**

_PREVIOUSLY_

_The baby in Olivia's arms started crying. Olivia tried to 'shush' her, rocking her gently. Peter managed to stand, clutching his arm to his chest, stumbling towards her and their daughter. _

"_Hi," Peter smiled at the baby, brushing a finger across her cheek. She moved under the touch, one tiny hand wrapping around his finger, holding it. _

_Peter looked up at Olivia, sighing in relief. _

_He let out a laugh, smiling at her, "You did it." _

"_Come here." _

_Olivia pulled him to her, kissing him with all she had. _

**October 2012**

"Just a little longer, Agent Dunham. Can you focus more of it towards the tubes?" Walter inquired. He perched eagerly on his bar stool, watching out the lab window.

It was the middle of the day and Olivia was standing outside, meters from the lab's windows. She stood, surrounded by flames that engulfed her body. The grass she stood on was either burnt or gone completely. There were several test tubes that Walter had lined with Aluminium foil he had found. They sat about a foot in front of her.

"I am trying Walter, but you know it's kind of hard to concentrate when you won't stop talking!" she hissed. Yes, she was getting impatient. Walter wanted her to hurry up, but wouldn't give her 5 seconds alone with her thoughts to concentrate.

Charlie and Peter stood up the steps of the Harvard entrance, watching as Olivia moved with the flames.

"You know, your father may be a little out there sometimes," Charlie spoke. Peter gave him a look, "okay, most of the time, but this is one hell of a good idea. I'm surprised it worked the first time."

"Yeah, I got to agree with you on this one." Peter accepted.

Walter had deduced that if Olivia could control the fire enough to capture it in a container, a bottle, it could then be used as a weapon.

Broyles and Charlie had designed a 'weapon' of sorts. Nothing else to do with their free time. Attach a test tube, filled with fire, to another test tube filled with gas or something explosive/flammable, all you had to do was throw it at a target. The test tubes will break, the gas mixing with the fire and BOOM! You got yourself a crispy creature.

Their trial runs were successful and now Walter had Olivia make several dozen of test tubes with fire. The aluminium inside would keep the flame alive long enough for an attack. Several days was the longest one lasted.

They planned on going to the Creature's hive that night, throw in a couple test tubes and run like hell. You know, just to see what happened exactly.

If this worked, they would have a way to reduce the creature's numbers faster then they multiplied. If they could tell other survivors of this 'cure/weapon' then it would give hope to the hopeless and a future to the human race. God knows they need it.

When Olivia was done, it was nearly half past 3 according to Charlie's watch. Olivia's clothing was burnt to a crisp, barely hanging onto her. Her jeans were now shorts, her shirt barely covering her breasts. (Gave a whole new meaning to fireproof clothing.)

"How's Ashley?" Olivia asked,

"Ah, with John."

"Of course." Olivia sighed,

Their daughter, Ashley Rachel Dunham-Bishop, was only 2 months old and had already taken a fancy to John. John had a way with her. None of them, even John, could see why she liked him, but she was her third choice when Olivia and Peter weren't around. She'd cry like mad whenever Astrid, Broyles, even Walter held her, but John she was okay with. Ashley liked Ella, well liked pulling on her long hair.

John seemed happy, having something to do. He was their resident babysitter. Astrid had Walter, Charlie and Ella had taken to being friends. Broyles was happy keeping watch each night, sleeping during the days. Occasionally Olivia would join him, whenever Ashley woke her up. The back office had been soundproofed to the best of their ability. Ashley had a great set of lungs, screaming at all hours of the night, but of course sleeping like an angel during the day.

Being born during the end of the world had its bonuses. Ashley was surrounded by people who loved her and would do anything to protect her. She always had someone caring for her, holding her and was their number one priority, followed by Ella and Walter (when he wasn't lucid he was most vulnerable).

Ashley, of course like her mother, was fascinated by the fire Olivia produced. Ashley wasn't harmed by the flames like Peter or the others were. Walter is confident that Ashley inherited the same ability as Olivia. Peter had found her sitting around scorched toys and blankets, but Olivia nowhere around. It was only logical that Ashley would be like her mother.

As the months grew on, she could cause puffs of smoke out her nose, and slight sparks when clapping her hands, but nothing dangerous, not quite yet.

**POPOPOP**

Charlie and Broyles sat, strapping gas tubes to the fire tubes. It had taken them an hour and a half to do 20. Ella was reading what remained of a booked called, '_A Wrinkle in Time_ by Madeleine L'Engle' The end few pages were missing, but she was a bright kid, she could make up her own ending. Ashley was curled up, asleep in the office, John sitting meters away, in case she woke. John too, was sleeping. Astrid was trying to keep Walter at bay; he was obviously having one of his _moments_. Jumping around the room, making incoherent sentences, babbling on about thins from Peter's childhood. Nothing new there.

Peter and Olivia finally had a chance to return to their 'room', the storage closet, hidden in the classroom. The second Ashley fell asleep they were gone, disappearing from the lab before anyone could blink.

Lying spent together in the rickety bed, they lay there in their bliss, holding onto their moment before something else ruined it. They still had a few hours before dark, but who knew how long Ashley would sleep for. Their bodies were covered in a thin layer of sweat, the cool evening air breezed in through the open window above them.

Peter's hand drew random patterns on her naked back. Peter was entirely content on staying this way forever, but Olivia had other plans. She shifted suddenly, rolling them so she straddled him.

Peter looked up at her in mock surprise.

"Really, you think you can go for round four?"

Olivia simply nodded happily.

"Seriously, I swear, you had the baby but kept the pregnancy hormones." He laughed, his hands stroking up her thighs to her waist.

Olivia looked down, "I don't see you complaining." She smirked.

Olivia shifted slightly, taking him in all at once. Peter choked on the gasp that tried to escape his lips. It was a sudden pleasurable feeling. Before Peter could protest the suddenness, Olivia moved her hips, thrusting against him. His protest forgotten against the sensations.

It was too soon Peter felt himself stir. He forced himself to push against her hips in a bruising manner, forcing her to stop moving. Olivia pouted down at him, innocently.

"Slow, sweetheart." He breathed, "Ashley is cared for, so go slow. We can take our time."

Olivia started moving again, slower than before. Peter moved under her, shifting he could touch her.

As Olivia's pace became erratic, Peter moved his fingers between her folds, faster as she moved against him.

They both fell over the edge together, again for the fourth time that evening, gasping the others name, suppressing the screams of pleasure that they wanted to let out.

When they lay back down, Olivia's legs tangled with Peter's, Peter pressed kisses in her hair. He suddenly laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"Just remembering your insatiable need was what got us Ashley in the first place, that and your lack of seeing pot holes." he smiled into her hair.

"Yeah, well, firstly, not my fault, I was looking for creatures not pot holes, and once again, were you complaining?"

**A/N: Short, I know, but just wanted to throw out there the start for a cure/weapon. **

**PRETTY PLEASE REVIEW – come on we can get to 55, even 50 would be great.**

**:D**


	15. October 2012 part 2

**October 2012**

**Part two**

"Are you sure, John?" Peter asked him,

"I'm sure. Dr. Bishop said that they are still scarring and any physical movement may cause them to rip open again."

John's wounds on his back hadn't gotten infected but after so many weeks, they had only just begun healing. He struggled to move, which may be why he offered to watch over Ashley so much; once she was asleep nothing could wake her. All he had to do was sit there and make sure she was safe and didn't crawl [or roll] away.

"Okay well Olivia's in the office feeding Ashley, so once she's done we can go." Peter stated.

By the time Peter and Olivia returned from their 'alone' time, the boys had finished the test tubes. It seemed the second they entered to lab, Ashley was screaming for food.

Olivia was sitting as comfortably as she could on the couch, her shirt was on the arm rest and her left bra strap hanging off as Ashley suckled on her breast. Her little fingers poked at it several times before she latched on. It had taken both her and Peter to get her to drink the first time, but now it seemed like she wouldn't let go.

Peter entered the office, sitting on the couch next to Olivia.

"Hey, how's she doing this time?"

"Better. Doesn't hurt much now, but once she gets more teeth..." Peter laughed.

Peter turned her head away from their daughter, lifting her chin so he could kiss her. Keeping one hand supporting Ashley, Olivia used her free hand to tug Peter closer, deepening the kiss.

At that moment, Ashley decided to move, flailing her legs outward, kicking at Peter.

"Greed little girl isn't she?"

"Yeah, well she must get that from you." She teased, "You don't want to share do you, baby girl?" she asked, looking down at her daughter. Ashley made a soft gurgling noise. Peter and Olivia took it as a yes and laughed.

When Ashley let go of Olivia's breast, Peter took her so Olivia could dress. Peter cradled his daughter in his arms, rocking her softly. She yawned, before she started sucking on her thumb. By the time Olivia was dressed and they left the office to join the others, Ashley was sound asleep in Peter's arms.

**POPOPOPO**

They each carried five (what Walter had named) Test-tube bombs, a torch each and their guns. It wasn't dark yet, they still had a while, but once they used the test-tube bombs, they would only have their torches for light. Solar powered torches only lasted so long and only worked so well. They had a nasty habit of dying at the worse moments.

The 'hive', the resting place of the creatures during the daylight hours wasn't even a 30 minute walk from the lab.

Olivia was already antsy leaving Ashley behind, but with John still healing, she didn't want the others to go and have something happen because they were one man short. Four was always better then three.

The test-tube bombs flickered in their containment, still alight but starting to fade. Walter had been certain that at the heat and pressure Olivia used, they would survive long enough for them to get there, with time to spare.

"So, who wants first throw?" Peter asked. It was clear that they were all eager to try their new weapon. Even Broyles had a smile. They were situated on the balcony of a two story building. The gaping hole on the road was the easiest entrance to the tunnels without endangering them. This way they were further enough away that the creatures would burn in the sunlight before they attacked them.

"May I?" Olivia asked. The others nodded, and she moved to perch on the ledge of the balcony. She stood up and looked at the hole in the road. Taking the first test-tube bomb from her waistband, she threw it, full force, over arm perfectly into the hole. There was only a second between the sound of the glass smashing, and the explosion from the fire and gas.

They could hear the wailing of the creatures below as the explosion caught them. The others didn't hesitate in throwing theirs.

It didn't take long before the test-tube bombs were gone and the screams of the creatures were now low moans of pain.

**POPOPOPO**

"Nice to know that we're not the last ones here." Charlie stated, though somewhat fearfully. They were returning to the lab after a successful first 'live' trial of their weapon.

Olivia wasn't exactly paying attention, her thoughts wondering to Ashley every 10 seconds.

"Huh... Oh sorry, Charlie. I guess I wasn't really paying attention." She apologized.

"Don't worry. Don't blame you. No mother should have to part for their child." He spoke as if he had experience, or had witness such a thing. Did Charlie have a child? Or _had_?

Olivia was ashamed to think that she and Charlie had, though they were still friends, lost touch. With her being a part of Fringe, she didn't get much chance for social, and Charlie (and Peter) were about all her social life, with the exception of Ella and Rachel when they were around. Before the end of the world, they hadn't seen each other for nearly 5 months.

"Sorry, Charlie. What were you saying?"

Charlie pointed to a scattered pile of ash and burnt wood inside a small room of a building. A bank by the looks of the ruins.

"It's nice to know that there are others alive. But with night only an hour away, we better hurry with this plan or else we won't be."

Olivia wasn't listening, again. But this time, not about Ashley, she was thinking about the ashes. "Hey, Peter, Broyles?" Olivia called out. The two men who had walked ahead, quickly returned to their side. Charlie pointed out the ash and wood.

"If you had survived around here, where would you go?" Olivia asked this as though the answer was painfully obvious. She wore a smile.

When no one answered, she nodded her head towards the wall that held a gold plague with the banks levels and what occupied them.

'_Level 3 – Senior Staff Offices_

_Level 2 – Junior Staff Offices_

_Level 1 – Accounting_

_Ground Floor _

_Vault'_

"The Vault." Broyles answered.

"Uh huh. It's what I'd do. It's locks are probably better then the labs."

"What about air? Aren't bank vaults airtight?"

"Not this one. Do you remember that article from, ah... well it was before Walter's birthday. 'Bank Attendant Suffocated in Vault Lock Malfunction.'"

"Yeah, I remember. The women were getting a deposit box when the vault locked on her. No one knew she was there til hours later." Charlie recalled, "I remember working the case. Thought it might have been a test by possible thieves. Test the vaults capabilities and all. It was just a malfunction."

"They removed the seal; the air can get in and out, but nothing bigger than an air molecule. It's the perfect hiding place." It was Peter who spoke this time.

They found the stairs to the vault easily. The bottom half of the bank seemed intact. The destruction hadn't gotten that far underground.

"You don't think there are survivors? Do you?" Charlie asked. He been holding up well all things considered. Probably the best out of all of them.

John got trigger happy at the slightest sound at night.

Broyles...was well Broyles, but more silent.

Ella was having nightmares again, but they had never really stopped.

Walter was being Walter. Experiment this, test that.

Astrid managed to keep distracted by looking after Walter and Ella occasionally.

Peter had Olivia, and vice-a-versa. They held each other together well.

But Charlie had no one. Sonia was gone, and unlike John, a tennis ball only entertained for so long. He was a social person, but spending what seemed like eternity with the same people, and now a baby, he was starting to break, albeit secretly. Not on the surface, no that mask he wore was a thick as concrete, but under the surface, he was fragile and could break any second. Like a glass balancing ever so dangerously on the edge of a table. One slip, one bump and it would fall, hit the ground and shatter into a million pieces with no hope of ever being fixed.

It's an understatement to say that they _all_ had high hopes. Since Dylan's death, they'd given up on finding others.

But none of them were expecting the sight they saw in front of them...

**A/N: Sorry about the cliff-hanger but I thought the suspense would be surprising when you guys read the next chapter. Not what you expect. Your welcome to guess what might be behind the vault door (dun dun duuuuunnn) :P **

****IMPORTANT**Anyway, just a little heads up, the next chapter will contain some dark themes, minor child abuse and a bit of cannibalism – so if that not your thing, I suggest you skip that chapter. Just PM me and I can give you the basic (none detailed) details of what you missed. **

**:D **

**REVIEW**


	16. October 2012 part 3

**A/N: I was watching Resident Evil: Afterlife when I was writing the last chapter. It gave me the idea of all this gory stuff, and gory stuff in the next few chapters. I wanted to add in another twist/danger since they now have a weapon against the creatures, (but...not a way to get rid of them completely). **

_PREVIOUSLY_

_It's an understatement to say that they all had high hopes. Since Dylan's death, they'd given up on finding others. _

_But none of them were expecting the sight they saw in front of them..._

**October 2012**

**Part three**

Broyles heaved the thick metal door open, revealing the inside of what should have been a bank vault. The door had been unlocked, much to their surprise.

They weren't expecting gold bars, or silver dollars. Treasures or priceless valuables. But they weren't expecting this.

The walls were covered in blood splatter and blood clotted . . . chunks of flesh. The floor was no better. Four, five, no six, bodies of what use to be people. Their flesh was torn, shredded off of their bodies. A women, blonde hair, the flesh on her left leg was completely gone, her femur (leg bone) stained with blood and dirt.

The other bodies were worse. Two of them were completely flesh-less, just bones. Bloody, fleshy . . . pieces of the other 3 had been ripped from the bodies, scattered around the vault.

They almost didn't notice the huddled body of a little girl, shivering in the corner. Too distracted by the blood and bodies. She was clutching a stuffed, old, worn and torn penguin. The child couldn't have been older then Ella, but she was dangerously thin, her ribs showing under her skin, through the tear in the side of her dress.

"Oh God." Olivia held a hand against her mouth as she took in the sight in front of her. There were no better words to describe the scene.

The little girl's brown locks were mattered with blood and possibly pieces of flesh. Blood was smeared all over her body. Arms, legs, down on side of her cheek, on her dress. She looked like she had come out of a horror movie, the only survivor of some axe-wielding-murdering-rapist who would hide in the bushes.

She lifted her head slowly, her eyes meeting Olivia's. They were a deep blue, but they were hollow. 'The eyes are the window to the soul', that particular quote was true in this case, this child's soul seemed to have vanished. She was bottled up, emotionless, huddled up among the death that surrounded her.

The child's eye suddenly became wide with fear, looking at something behind the group.

They turned around, not sure what to expect.

"Oh my god! I . . .," a man stood at the vault door. He wore torn jeans and button down shirt. He held a can of some food in his hand.

"Who are you?" Broyles asked. They all had pointed their weapons at him, but lowered them when they realised everything was safe. They were just jumpy.

"George Olson. I, we. . .I left to find food. I was only gone 10 minutes!" his voice was broken, but Olivia couldn't see any kind of shock or sadness in his face. His eyes unmoved, he didn't look scared, or petrified, by the scene in front of him. Olivia was a tad suspicious about it at first, _Killers aren't affected by their murder scenes, they don't look away, they enjoy watching what they did_, she thought, but pushed it aside when she considered all the things that he and the little girl must have seen since the end of the world. Blood and bodies were practically the norm nowadays.

"How far did you go? To get the food." Charlie asked,

"Ah, a block or two. There was a deli. They had only one can." George explained,

Olivia looked at Charlie, "The sewers are all connected to the tunnels. One of the creatures could have fled, ended up here. The door was unlocked; they could have come here looking for shelter from the flames we started. Attacked the people." She theorised.

"Would they come out into the sunlight?"

"Would you stay in a flaming hole or risk the few meters of sunlight to shelter?" she replied.

oOo

The little girl was still shaking in Charlie's arms as he carried her. It was easier to carry her as they ran back to the lab, night wasn't too far away. She looked around Ella's age, so Charlie placed her in the office with Ella, hoping the two would bond and the girl would start talking. They had a small fire going in the middle of the room.

The man, George, sat with the adults, explaining what happened to him when the world ended. They were huddled in the corner furthest away from the office. John managed to get Ashley asleep and placed her in her home made 'cot' in with Ella and the young girl, so he, Broyles, Charlie, Peter, Olivia, Walter and Astrid were able to talk without interruptions.

Like most of the world, he was confused by these 'attacks'. The military, air force, navy, army, every defence force seemed to fall within minutes of their countries invasion. Nothing could stop these creatures.

"May 2010, I was in Morocco when we got news that France, Portugal, Italy, most of the Eastern Europe had fallen. I didn't believe it at first. Great countries destroyed in days by 'creatures'. It wasn't until survivors entered Africa, showed me a video someone had taken of a creature mauling a child. I believed after that."

"How'd you get here? All flights in, out, anywhere in America were stopped." John asked.

"A boat. A deep sea fishing boat offered us a last minute transport to America. They were headed to Virginia, hoping to find family. They got to theirs in time. I wasn't as lucky. They dropped me off and I started my way to New York, were my wife and daughter lived. New York was no longer a great city. It took me 2 days, walking and hitchhiking when I could. I only saw 4 cars and probably 20 people in total in my journey."

He took a breath and drank from the cup of water Astrid had given him.

"I found survivors hiding out in buildings. They told me that most of the people had taken their cars and families west, to the oceans. There were theories that the creatures couldn't swim, that if they were on boats they'd be safe."

"We know for a fact that isn't true. These creatures are part _Hydrophis Belcheri. _The Belcher's Sea Snake. These creatures do in fact swim, extremely well." Walter spoke, interrupting George's story.

"How do you know that?"

Walter opened his mouth to speak, but Olivia stopped him. "We managed to capture one of them. We did tests on them. We're scientists." The others caught on quick.

As Walter went to speak, Olivia stood up. "I think I hear Ashley, Walter care to help me?" Olivia gave him a glare and Walter nodded feebly and followed Olivia to the Office. Ella, Ashley and the young girl were asleep, so Olivia kept her voice down.

"Walter, we have to be careful with what we say. We do not know this man. We do not know how he will react if he found out we are the reason his family is dead. Do you understand, Walter?"

"Yes." He nodded affirmatively.

"Okay." Olivia went to leave, but was called back by Walter's near silent whisper,

"Agent Dunham, may I hold my grandchild?"

"Of course, Walter. Just come get me if she cries." Olivia gave him a soft smile as he picked up the sleeping child and rocked her in his arms.

Walter wasn't the most trustable person, but he was dead serious and completely lucid when it came to his granddaughter.

When Olivia returned she found George had continued his story.

". . . I found the group, the people in the vault, a month after I arrived in Boston. What survivors we found had remained with their friends and family, but passed on what news they had heard from others." He acknowledged Olivia's return with a simple nod, "we were told about a radio frequency that survivor military, defence force (etc) used to give out news and updates on what was happening. We thought it was a miracle that we had this, that we could keep ahead, alive with the information given. They told us of sunlight being their weakness, torches, flames... and that as long as where we were, as long as we were well lit, we were safe. The transmissions were transmitted every day at noon. But one day, there was no transmission. We waited a week, still no more transmissions. We were alone."

Turned out that most survivors he encountered were referring to that day as the day the world ended.

"We've been in the vault for, I think a few months. We've only been outside maybe once a week. I'm surprised we didn't find or cross paths with you."

"How have the creatures been acting, what do you think?"

"Well, a few months ago, myself and another man had left our group in search of a new place to hide. We got caught in the dark, we had torches. But there were no creatures around. We could hear their cries in the distance, screams of someone, a women maybe. But we didn't stick around to find out. We returned to the vault and sealed it."

"Yeah, there's a very good chance that was us. Olivia was in labour. Her cries attracted the creatures. My father, Walter," Peter pointed his thumb to the back office, "he's our resident expert on the creatures," he said, keeping up the ruse that they, well Walter, were scientists, "he thinks that the creatures are partially sentient. That they hear the screams, hear 'prey' in distress and came looking for her."

"Oh. Well, obviously you survived. How though?"

"We have an advantage." Charlie stated simply. But George wouldn't have that; he looked at them, curious.

Charlie looked at Olivia, his eyes asking whether or not to tell him. Olivia subtly shook her head, no. George didn't see this, his back turned to Olivia.

"We've managed to create . . . bombs of sorts. Fire and gas in tubes which once the glass is broken, mix and explode. Keeps the creatures away until whatever is a light and burning, dies." Charlie explained.

"Wow. Well if you would excuse me, I am extremely tired. I'd like to sleep for a while."

"Sure, um, here take that mattress in the corner. Liv, we'll move to the office, keep Ashley away so everyone can sleep." Peter suggested. Peter felt Olivia's unease. It was literally rolling off of her. She simply nodded.

"I'll go kick Walter out."

oOo

"What's wrong, 'Livia?" Peter asked softly. Everyone except Charlie, who was keeping watch, was asleep.

"I don't trust him. He's got a . . . creepy vibe. I don't think he was telling the truth, about being out looking for food. His eyes didn't leave the bloody bodies when he saw the vault."

They lay down on the blankets in the office, Olivia cradling Ashley in her arms, settled between her and Peter's bodies. Ella and the little girl were asleep on the couch. The girl looked more peaceful now, calm.

"He was in shock. Probably still is. Just give it time; I'm sure there are perfectly reasonable answers, sweetheart."

"I still don't trust him."

**A/N: Please REVIEW, I'm not really good at describing gore, so help, critique much appreciated. Was it okay, too little, too much...?**

****okay so I've changed the cannibal/child abuse part to later on. I'll put a warning before it when it occurs so if you want to skip it. **


	17. November 2012, part 1

**A/N: okay so this is my attempt at mentally insane people talk. It's really just a 'blah' of words stuck together, but Walter explains it all in the end so don't worry if you can't understand it. **

_**IMPORTANT:**_** If you're creeped out by mentions of cannibalism and torture skip the paragraph between then POPOPOP. **

**November 2012**

It had been a few days since they had found George and the little girl, who they came to know as Katie. Ella had gotten her talking but she seemed to be more comfortable around Walter. George said that it was probably because her grandfather took care of her while they were in the vault.

The first few days were hectic. George and Katie were both half starved and scoffed whatever was put in front of them. George slept soundly, while Katie would wake after nightmares. George had made himself at home with them, while Katie was still haunted. Something scared her, but they didn't know what.

Olivia's 'evil spidey sense' about George had worn away. He seemed like a decent guy, kind and caring towards everyone, especially Olivia. Charlie and John thought it was probably because she was the first person he saw when he came back. Probably sees her as his saviour. It was deranged, but what wasn't? He'd been cooped up in the vault and when he goes outside to get food he returns to find a blood bath. To him, she "rescued" him from that tormented place.

It seemed that Olivia and Peter had swapped opinions. Olivia warmed to George while Peter abhorred his leering over Olivia.

He was always right at her side with anything she needed, helping her cook, all the things Peter would do.

Peter's breaking point was around 2 weeks after George and Katie had arrived with them. Olivia had gone to care for Ashley when she started crying. Peter had returned from the bathroom to find George peering through the office window, watching Olivia, shirt off, breast feeding Ashley.

Punches were thrown and eyes marked.

No one seemed to see the 'strangeness' of George. John, Astrid and Broyles agreeing that George probably hadn't had this much contact with other people in a while, it was to be expected that he would act differently, slightly uncivil or unsocial.

But all Peter could see was the pervert of a man watching the mother of his child half naked.

The month went by fast. Olivia spending a few hours putting fire in tubes for the boys, the boys making more bombs, but at Peter and Olivia's asking, far away from the lab and Ashley. Ashley had recently discovered her fingers and had become absolutely fascinated by them. Peter found it funny, she would poke at her own fingers, move them in front of her eyes, and she'd be touching everything. She discovered her feet soon after, but she was months away from crawling or walking. She'd learnt to wriggle out of her blanket wrap at night.

When midday came around another day, George waited until Olivia had put Ashley down to sleep and for Peter to be outside to ask.

"I want to return to the vault. You know, get what few possessions remain, clean them off. I was hoping to also find Katie's stuffed rabbit. It was her favourite. It might be bloodstained but, one can hope, right?"

"Yeah, sure." Olivia said. She found it strange that he was sort of asking permission to go. She turned back to Ashley, tucking her in to the make-shift crib, wrapping the blankets around her frail body.

"I don't want to go alone. I know its daylight and all, but..."

"Oh, yeah. I'll just tell John to keep an eye on Ashley. Mind if Ella comes too? She hasn't been outside in a while."

"Of course." He agreed.

Ella was more than happy to be getting outside.

They walked to the vault, welcoming the sun's warmth.

"Ella if you could look in the vault for the rabbit, I want to show Olivia something." George asked kindly. Ella nodded in agreement and continued down the stairs to the vault.

"I remembered you saying about the creatures and the holes to the tunnels. Well there's one here. I thought you might want to have a look, see it it's where the creatures could have come from." George said, stating his intentions.

"Sure."

POPOPOPOP

Walter sat with the little girl, Katie. They were outside. On the steps, enjoying the sun and the slight breeze that came their way. Peter and Charlie were walking around. Nothing better to do.

"Do you want something to eat? Charlie cooked a stew from a tin. It is very delicious." Walter held out a small bowl filled with a brownish sauce and chunks of meat and vegetables.

Katie pushed the spoon around in the stew. "It looks like them. When their fresh, still bloody."

"Excuse me?" Walter hadn't realised she was speaking, but caught the last bit and was shocked.

"This." She lifted the bowl as indication, "it looks like them when he starts. Blood spills everywhere, lost of mess. The sound of cutting. Bones breaking. It's all I hear when I close my eyes." Was she incoherent? Tormented by the bloodbath in the vault.

Peter and Charlie had noticed their encounter and came to sit next to them, listening.

"Chop, chop, chop. The skin is squishy under the knife. He drains the blood first. A hole, right here." She touched her neck where her artery was. "hang 'em by their feet. The blood falls, puddles, drip, drip. They're still there. Eyes awake, watching, hanging, stuck unable to save themselves. I sit, watching. I can't move. He won't let me. I watch as their eyes hollow, dying. The fire roasts slowly. Tender, the fat one. I won't taste. He yells at me. More for him." She was an incoherent as Walter when he first left St. Claire's but ironically, Walter was the one who understood her.

He dropped his bowl and made a mad dash across the yard, running as fast as an old man of his age could.

"Walter! Where are you going?" Peter cried out, him and Charlie running after him.

"Olivia. She is not safe."

"What?"

Surprisingly, Walter was fast. Peter and Charlie managing to catch up to him and stop him.

"George did it. He ate those people." Walter blubbered. "We need to find Ella and Agent Dunham."

Peter was gone seconds after the words left Walter's lips.

"Go back to Katie. Stay with her." Charlie instructed before following after Peter.

POPOPOPOP

Ella went into the vault, searching for the rabbit for Katie. She held her shirt over her nose. The blood she was use too, but the smell. That's something that you never can adjust too, no matter how long you spend around dead bodies. She bent over, having found the stuff toy. Its fur was relatively unstained, except one ear that had a blood stain. If it didn't come out they could cut it off.

She smiled at her victory but before she could turn around she heard the vault door slam shut, its mechanical locks whirring.

"Aunt Liv?" she called out.

When there was no answer, she ran to the door, pounding on it with her small fists.

"Aunt Liv!" she called out again, "HELP! Aunt Liv! Anyone!" she slammed against the door, but it wouldn't budge.

She was trapped.

**A/N: okay so tell me how was it? I keep getting the feeling like I'm dragging this on and you guys are getting uninterested? **

**Do you like where it is going? I know how I want to end it and that will take 2-3 chapters. So tell me if it's getting boring and I'll start on the end, or if you want more. **


	18. November 2012, part 2

**A/N: this chapter is set a few days after the last chapter. But the flashbacks are set at the end of the events in the last chapter. (hope it makes sense)**

**November 2012 part two**

Olivia woke like she had every night since.

Screaming.

Her hair would be stuck to her forehead, her face wet from either tears or sweat or both. And no one knew what to do about it. Peter would comfort her as best he could. Hold her as she slept, as she cried. But in the end she didn't talk.

She didn't respond to Ashley's cries anymore. Peter and John took care of her, trying to get Olivia to feed her, hold her, but she just looked at them, scared to hold her baby daughter.

Peter never found out what really happened to her. But something scared her enough that she retreated from her own daughter, like she was contaminated.

_*FLASHBACK*_

Peter's entire body was in overdrive. His feet pounding on the pavement, running full force towards the bank vault. Charlie was seconds behind him.

All Peter could think about was what he would do to that sadistic son-of-a-bitch once he got his hands on him. _'Castrate him? Just shoot him? Olivia would probably want a turn too, let her burn him maybe?'_ he thought.

They found Ella first. She was in tears, her arm bruised from banging on the vault door. She ran into Charlie's arms in hysterics. There were no lights in the vault. In pitch black with rotting corpses, flesh, and blood. That was nothing a child should experience.

Peter went frantic. Searching every room. Every corner. Every dark place in the bank before finding them.

Olivia looked like she'd been through a war. Her hair was dishevelled, her shirt ripped open, revealing her bra and breasts. She was covered in dirt like she'd been rolling on the dirt floor. Blood covered just about every inch of her body.

"It's not all mine." Was all she said.

She stood, her legs barely holding her up. She held a lead pipe in one hand, a bloody lead pipe.

It clattered to the floor.

George lay in a bloody heap on the floor. His body contorted and bent in ways Peter could only guess was from the lead pipe hitting him.

To one side of the room were several butcher knives, carving knives. Peter could only guess that they were what made the several large cut marks down her stomach and over one arm. Along with the cuts, she had several bite marks. On her neck, arms, stomach. The one above her breast made Peter red with anger. He was glad Olivia had offed him, otherwise he would have made it as painful and long as he could just for doing that to her.

When they returned to the lab, Olivia walked mechanically to the corner and sat down. Charlie was carrying Ella who had stopped crying. Charlie cooked what he could and she ate it eagerly. But whenever Charlie stood to leaver, she would clutch at him and start crying again.

Taking one look at Olivia, Peter knew he had to get her clean and fix up her wounds.

He ransacked random piles of random things searching for the dress Olivia wore while she was pregnant. It wasn't warm, but it was clean.

"Did we find any medicine's on our last trip out?" Peter asked, directed at no one in particular.

"There's some Neosporin. Not much though." John called out, holding up the little tube.

"Good enough. Can you find me any clean clothes? I'm gonna try and get her cleaned up. Just put them on the bench in the showers. Thanks John." Peter said and asked this all at once, all the while moving Olivia out of the lab towards the showers.

The showers were small. Only 2 cubical. They weren't meant for everyday use. Only for the one or two students, or teachers who had spent the night studying or grading papers.

Olivia just stood there, motionless, as Peter slowly peeled Olivia's bloody clothes off her, throwing them into a corner.

Peter stripped to his boxers before guiding her under the cold spray of the shower. Hot water was a luxury long forgotten.

"Peter?" he heard John call out.

"Yeah. Over here." Peter stepped out of the cubical, keeping it so Olivia had her privacy. She sank down the shower wall, curling in a ball on the floor. Her cuts bleed as her body bent

"Only find 4." John handed him the cloths. He peered at the stall. "How is she?"

"Honestly? I don't know. She isn't talking, she just moves as she's told. And don't know what he did to her, John! I don't know what to do to help!"

"Well, get her clean, let her sleep. Might be better in the morning." John gave him a half-hearted smile as he left the bathroom.

"Yeah."

He opened the shower door, stepping in. He helped Olivia to her feet.

"You okay, Liv?"

She looked at him blankly. "Yeah." It came out as a whisper.

"How bad are they?"

"They don't hurt. Not anymore." She smiled softly.

Closing her eyes, she tilted her head under the spray of cold water. Her skin rose with goosebumps.

Peter cleaned her as quickly as he could, cleaning out the wounds with one cloth. Once out of the shower. He used the spare cloths to dry them before slipping the dress over Olivia's head. It fit loosely around her thin frame. Despite having been pregnant not 2 months ago, she managed to return to her slim figure. Lack of proper food, all the running, the stress, must have taken its toll on her.

She slept soundly at first. Letting Peter wrap her up in blankets, letting him hold her. But even Peter's comfort didn't keep the nightmares away.

_*END FLASHBACK*_

That was only Peter's story. No one knew Olivia's. He had asked her and asked her over and over again, but each and every time she'd close up. Put up her walls and hideaway in the corner of her mind.

Ella did the same. She would have nightmares about the dead bodies. She didn't go through what the others could only guess Olivia had, but no child should see that. Ever.

In the end, guessing was all they could do.

**A/N: Okay, so I love reviews, who doesn't these days? **


	19. December 2012

**A/N: the last chapter was set in the last few days of November, so this one is a continuation, but crossing to the first few days of December. **

**Early December 2012**

It wasn't a matter of whether she _could_ tell Peter what had happened, but more of whether she wanted Peter to _know_.

Olivia hadn't slept at all for the first two nights. Sitting wide awake huddled in the corner. Ignoring Peter, Astrid, Walter, even Charlie, and completely rejecting any kind of motherly duties towards Ashley.

Peter had been forced to use extremely water-down powdered milk. He didn't know how long until Olivia would feed Ashley again, or hold her, comfort her. But he knew that he'd need to make the powdered milk last as long as possible.

Ella had returned to her usual self, playing games with Walter. Going outside with Astrid. She'd started sleeping better. Ella and the little girl, Katie, were much better together now. Katie had started talking. _A lot._ Once she started to open up, nothing could stop her. She'd talk about any and everything. Her favourite foods, games, her family, _everything_.

John and Peter had mended the 'feud' they had, taking turns to help care for Ashley for Olivia's sake. Charlie and Broyles had started taking Ella and Katie out with them. They had plenty of test tube bombs to last a few weeks. They all hoped Olivia would be, 'sane' wouldn't be the correct word, 'better', maybe, by the time they ran out. They all had started feeling safer to venture outside. Pushing 'return' times on searches to just before dusk, enabling them to search further away from the lab, further into the city.

3 weeks after Peter had found her, the days had now become routine. Either Olivia didn't sleep at all, or she would wake screaming from a nightmare. Peter would help her eat, shower, dress. But usually she'd sit in the corner, eyes full of fear, mute. She'd just stare into space. She had become mechanical, only performing basic tasks.

"How long do you think?" John asked Charlie one day, "You know, till Liv gets better?" They were sitting, leaning over the table trying to make a card tower. Charlie had offered to keep an eye on Ashley and Olivia, Peter desperately needing sleep, so did Astrid. Between Ashley and a screaming Olivia during the nights, Peter was exhausted. No, exhausted didn't even come close to what he was feeling.

Broyles and Astrid had started on food and supply runs. Broyles usually standing in the background, not sure what to do. He'd never seen Olivia like this. Ever. She was his best agent, the one who was able to pull through anything and everything. The agent who survived god-knows-what was no reduced to tears and screams.

"Soon, I hope. Peter can't keep feeding Ashley that powdered stuff. It's not good for her, being so young."

"Why doesn't she hold her? She's her mother after all." John placed a card on top of the small rectangle 'card-house', trying to balance two together to form a triangle.

"I don't know. Peter said she was talking in her sleep the other night. Something about her being scared that Ashley would _know_ what she did. What she did to protect herself."

They both looked over at Olivia, still sitting. Still staring aimlessly.

"Babies can sense fear. They can sense when their parents are fighting or upset."

The card tower fell as Walter shoved the lab doors open. Clanging against the wall behind it with a loud 'bang', causing Olivia to jump, becoming scared almost immediately. She stood, back pressed against the cold concrete wall of the lab.

"Olivia!" he beamed, noticing her standing in the corner. "It's absolutely delightful to see you up and about. I was positive you would sleep longer, since you didn't wake during the night." Walter was obviously unaware of her frightened state, rambling on like he always would.

"Walter, go . . . play with your . . . experiments, or whatever. Liv, do you want to go outside for a bit?" Charlie stood, walking carefully, slowly towards her. He saw she wanted an out, wanted to leave, to be away from everything.

Olivia looked around, looking at the watching pairs of eyes, before nodding timidly.

"Come on." Charlie held out his hand for Olivia to take. She slipped her hand into his, holding it tightly.

John watched them leaving, promising to keep an eye on Walter. Astrid and Broyles had promised to return before dark with whatever food they could find. Their tins of labels-torn-off-mystery fruits, vegetables, soups, were running low.

oOo

Charlie led them through the buildings, just wandering the halls. The classrooms were eerily haunting. They'd been empty, deserted for years. The dust on the desks had built up, the sun light seeping through closed blinds, shining on the dust their feet kicked up as they walked.

They'd never been this far. It was ironic. They'd explored so far out from the lab into the city, but never the building they occupied. Peter and Olivia hadn't made it this far. Needless to say, they weren't thinking about where in the building they were when they'd taken the first lockable room they could find. Their thoughts having been otherwise preoccupied.

They walked, hand in hand for several minutes. They found a shaded patch of grass on the lawn and just sat. Sat in silence. Olivia watched the clouds above them. They were so peaceful, light weighted, free. She became mesmerised watching them. While Charlie watched her. Watched her emotions play across her face as she lay on the grass watching the sky. She'd been couped up in the lab. Scared to leave, uncertain. This was the most relaxed Charlie had seen her since.

Charlie was content on just sitting, giving her time, space.

"I was next." She didn't look at him as she spoke.

"What do you mean?"

"George. He caught me off guard. He'd disappeared for a second when I wasn't looking and then hit me over the head with something. Tied me up, cut me." She lifted her shirt, showing him the nearly healed cut-wound-would-be-scar on her stomach.

"He kept saying how Katie wasn't his type. She was too skinny, not enough 'meat'. Told me he liked women better. Tastier. He'd bite me, drawing blood, tearing the skin."

"Blood. He liked watching it. Said the less blood, the less human they are. He justifies eating them to survive if they are already dead and bloodless. Says it's just like eating a chicken or lamb. Survival of the fittest."

Olivia was shaking now. She'd closed her eyes, still unable to met Charlie's.

"Liv, you don't have to—"

"He let me go. Said he wanted a fighter. Hadn't had someone who fought back. Killed them in their sleep, the ones in the vault." She was speaking in short sentences, unable to keep her emotions in check.

"He tormented me. Saying once he was done with me, he'd do the same to Ella and then Astrid and Ashley. He liked babies. Younger. Said they tasted like chicken."

She pushed back tears.

"and I hit him with pipe. And I didn't stop. I smashed him, broke him. I . . . I don't do that. I've never done that. I shoot people. I've never had to get so close to them. I can still feel his blood on my hands, on my body."

Another silence. Charlie's mind was in overdrive. She'd told him. And he didn't know what to make of it. He understood it. She was emotionally driven to protect her daughter and those she cared about.

"Why haven't you told Peter?"

There was an uncomfortable silence. Charlie wondered if he had asked too soon.

"He won't want me. Not if he knew." It came out in a whisper, her voice laced with fear.

"Every time, I look at him, look in his eyes, I can't help thinking that he sees me as a freak, dangerous. I'm nowhere near normal, I'm a 1000 miles away from normal. Normal is a dot on the horizon for me." It was all coming loose now. Charlie knew he'd opened a gate and was ready for anything, ready to be the friend she needed right now.

"Peter deserves normal. Ashley deserves normal. But because of me, because of what's in me, Ashley won't have normal. But, at least I can protect her from this. She shouldn't know what her mum did. I want her to look up at me and see her mother, but how can she see that when even I can't? I look at myself and wonder, 'what am I capable of?'." She was in a phase. Her face full of fear, worry, her hands waving about, unknowing what to do with them. Her blonde hair hung down her shoulders.

"Liv." He turned to face her, drawing her attention to him. "Peter loves you for you. He loved you when you were at your worst. When you were pregnant. He loved you when you became a pyromaniac. He loved you long before this whole mess started, long before the creatures. He's always loved you. We've all seen it. Hell, we've seen the guy head over heels in love with you and you not see a thing. He only cares that your safe and well. He's worried that you won't get better, that Ashley will grow up without a mum. He needs you. Ashley needs you. And you need them. So tell Peter. Let him in. Let him help you. Let him love you."

Olivia could see the sincerity in Charlie's eyes as he spoke.

Then she laughed.

"What?"

"Since when did you become a romantic?"

"Well, I have my talents. Come on." He stood, holding out his hand for her.

When they returned to the lab, Peter was awake, cuddling Ashley to his chest.

"Hi." She spoke softly.

"Hi."

"Can we talk, in the office?"

"Sure. John, can you take Ashley for a bit?"

"Yeah. Come 'ere baby girl." He took a sleepy Ashley into his arms, rubbing her back.

Olivia led them to the office, sitting on the couch, Peter sitting next to her.

"I need to tell, about what happened."

And she did.

**A/N: I am SOOOOOOO sorry for the extremely long update. Uni started for me and I got loaded with 4 assignments, one an essay, so I've been writing slowly in my free time. Updates maybe hanky for a bit till I find my rhythm again (holidays messed me up goooood)**

**I know I don't deserve reviews as punishment, but they are nice. This topic's been getting a bit difficult to write, emotionally – so if I go too far and creep you guys out, tell me and I'll delete it and make it 'softer'. **


	20. Walter's New Year

_A/N: I'd like to say a HUGE thanks to_ **boronia-lee** _for the lovely review, absolutely made my day! (well weeks since its been forever) _

_So I wrote a little smut cos I hadn't written any in a while. _

_And because you love me, REVIEW_

_Come on everyone, we can get to 100! – let me know what you like reading, what you don't. _

_Also, a line from O's 3x16, but few words missing cos, well there are no collage kids around. _

**New Years Eve 2012**

Things seemed to get a little better. In every way seemingly possible. Olivia, albeit slowly, returned to her normal self. She cared for Ashley again, and safe to say everyone in the lab was grateful. There had been very long nights when Ashley would cry and nothing Peter did would calm her. She wanted her mummy.

Peter had taken Katie and Ella outside for a while. Ella had tripped inside a (now-unstable) department store, falling through the floor, to a basement level below. No one knew it was there. There must have been other survivors because inside were stacked and shelved cans of fruit, vegetables, soups. Heating equipment, torches, blankets.

It was the end of the world; _finder's keepers_ really did apply here.

They all started eating more. Katie put on weight, considering she was twig thin, it was praised and encouraged.

As winter set in for good, the group started making adjustments to conserve heat. Whenever Olivia was up either keeping watch or just couldn't sleep she'd keep her hand alight, and would relight the barrel fires when they went out. She wouldn't dare try sleeping with her hand on fire, not with Ashley with her, or Peter. She could protect them if she chose but she had to concentrate on it, but when she was asleep her concentration would slip, she would become a danger.

Though the nights were cold, the days were still relatively warm. Warm enough that anyone could venture outside and not freeze to death.

According to Walter's 'calculations and something about the sun and moon's positioning, all in all, Olivia wasn't really listening, all she heard was,

"Today's New Year's Eve!" came Walter's ecstatic voice.

"We missed Christmas?" came the shocked reply of Ella and Katie. Christmas, not to mention just about everyone's birthdays. _**Time had become meaningless to them now**_. Their ages, birthdays, holiday traditions no longer meant anything, not compared to their survival.

Walter looked down at the girls as he spoke, "Unfortunately my dears, yes." Walter turned towards the adults, "But, it means we must have a New Years Eve Party tonight! Though I am not quite sure what year exactly, but a New Year nonetheless."

"Walter. We are living in the lab, eating canned foods and barely making it through winter and you want to throw a _party_? With what? There's nothing here." Charlie and John both agreed with Peter on this.

"Walter, a party may not be the best idea." Charlie saw Walter's face fall, feeling guilty he quickly added, "but doesn't mean we can't celebrate it. Just without balloons, streamers, and chips. Oh what I'd kill for some chips right now." Charlie sulked.

"When I was pregnant, I had these burger cravings." Olivia added.

"Was this before or after the spaghetti?" Charlie asked her.

"After." Olivia answered, "Right now, I miss Bacon."

"Ooh, bacon." Was Peter's.

"And beer." John spoke. "I miss beer bowling."

"There still beer lurking around."

"Yeah but not the good stuff. Plus it's probably expired by now." John said to Peter.

"Hot dogs." Came a deep voice from behind them.

They all turned to see Broyles standing there.

"Oh hot dogs. Mustard, tomato sauce, cheese, onions." Walter added. He clapped his hands eagerly as if hoping one would randomly appear in front of him.

They all went silent as they each pictured the food they missed the most.

Oreo's were Ella's. Stringers (the cheese things) were Katie's. Walter missed eating waffles with honey, cream with pepper sauce. But that was trumped when someone mentioned fish sticks.

By midday, the group had gathered what 'luxury' foods they had and could find.

Walter had decided on sitting outside with random equipment he "found" in the storage closet where he kept all his old stuff, playing with dials and gadgets doing god-knows-what. He wanted to create a clock so he could count down the midnight.

Olivia was in the office. Ashley tucked underneath her shirt as she fed.

"I'm going to talk to Astrid then can you meet me in the hall once Ash is done?"

"Yeah, just a minute." Olivia looked at the feeding child, wincing as she suckled too hard.

Once Ashley was fed, Olivia patted her back until she burped.

"There we go." Olivia said as she placed Ashley in the makeshift cot, tucking the child in as she slept.

The second the lab doors closed, Peter kissed her hard.

When he pulled away, Olivia was smirking at him.

"This why you called me out here? So we can make-out out here and not in front of your dad?"

"Exactly." Peter kissed her again before taking her hand, and leading her down the hallway.

Their clothes were stripped as soon as Olivia closed and locked the door of their room behind them, separating them from the rest of the world. Within moments both were naked. Peter sat in the middle of the bed, Olivia's legs wrapped around his waist, holding her to him.

Peter kissed his way down her neck, revealing in the orgasmic sound that escaped her lips as he did so.

He kissed his way down her neck, over her collarbone, sucking on her pulse point. He made a wary note that her breast were still sensitive, kissing each lightly. The light feathery touch of Peter's lips was enough to entice a soft moan from her.

Together they moved, slowly at first, Peter moving deep within her.

Olivia's strangled cries of 'faster' and 'harder' encouraged him on, speeding up their pace.

Peter felt himself near his peak, and shifted their position so he could snake a hand to their fronts and touch her.

Olivia choked on her words, her cries of pleasure barely silenced by Peter's lips as they fell over the edge together.

Night came quickly. Everyone distracted by the preparations, cooking the food, securing everything, and other things. The boys did a quick once over through the school and the halls, locking everything up and sealing the door as they returned. They had test tube bombs near each window just in case. The flames light reflecting off the glass made the room glow.

They pigged out once everything was cooked.

Ella and Katie played with the deck of cards. Or what use to be the deck of cards and was now missing several cards. Astrid

Broyles and John disassembled, cleaned and reassembled their favourite weapons. (John's the AK47 and Broyles his 9mm which he took everywhere.)

Olivia and Peter were sitting against the wall on a tattered mattress. Olivia sat between Peter's legs as she nursed Ashley. Once the child burped, she yawned, snuggling against Olivia's chest. Olivia, following her lead, settled against Peter's chest, slowly allowing sleep to claim her as it did her daughter. Peter watched his two favourite girls as they slept. They were so peaceful. He wrapped his arms protectively around both of them, settling against the wall behind him.

What felt like only an hour later, Walter jumped up and down suddenly, waking the sleeping Peter and Olivia, and stirring the young child that they held close to their bodies.

"WAKE UP!" he cried. "Everyone up. Come on!" he was bouncing on the balls of his feet. Jumping back and forth.

"Walter! What is it?" Peter asked his father, annoyed.

"It's one minute to midnight! One minute till the new year."

"10.

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

"Happy New Year!" Everyone cheered, Walter jumping up and down with excitement.

They'd made it this far. They'd survived, together, for so long.

But it wasn't over. Not by a long shot.

_**A/N: anyone find the 'That '70s Show reference'? I was watching season 4 when I wrote this so it kinda slipped it in there :P **_

_**I wrote this and Chpt. 20 together, and I had a bit of trouble writing it. My brain literally refused to let me write. **_

_**I plan to not update until I've finished the story completely so it can be daily updates. **_


	21. A Night Stroll & Fiery Union

**A Night Stroll and a Fiery Union**

They didn't know how long it had been since (what Walter believed to be the New Year), they'd lost count days ago. Winter had ended. They could only guess it was nearing the middle-end of Spring. Walter had "estimated" that Ashley's age to be around 7-8 months.

It came to no surprise to Walter when Olivia's cries of joy echoed through the lab.

"Peter! Peter, come here, quick!"

Peter rushed through the lab, pushing past Walter who was huddled at the door. The fear that something bad had happened was replaced with complete glee when he saw the sight in front of him.

Ashley had discovered her hands and feet a few months after her birth, 'gabaga' and 'bubu' are, for the moment, her favourite words. She had learnt 'mama' a bit after Walter's New Year which Olivia had been ecstatic about for the next several days.

Peter watched as his daughter crawled, on her hands and knees, towards Olivia. She sat in the corner furthest from her, enticing her on, clapping her hands, drawing Ashley's curiosity, and therefore her desire to crawl towards it. Once she got to her, Olivia scooped her up and her smile as wide as Ashley's. Ashley had a goofy grin of excitement, clapping her hands clumsily in joy.

Peter joined in, sitting on the ground next to the door and calling for his daughter. She pushed away from Olivia and started crawling towards Peter.

They stayed like this for what seemed like forever. Broyles, John and Charlie stood behind Astrid and Walter as they all watched from the doorway. The peering, curious eyes of Katie and Ella could be seen through the office's windows.

They all watched as the adorable blond haired child crawled on her hands and knees back and forth between her parents.

She was giggling and still wearing that goofy grin. Soon, Ashley started yawning, her crawling slowing. Olivia held her, cradling her to her body. The child aimlessly grabbed at Olivia's breast, pulling on the material separating her from her food.

"I think someone's hungry." She moved to sit on the couch.

Taking the hint, everyone dispersed quickly, closing the door and leaving the newbie parents and their daughter in privacy.

Peter watched as the mother and daughter bonded. Olivia trying to get Ashley to latch on without much success. Peter leant forward, stroking down Ashley's check, letting her suck on his fingertip. Olivia moved her closer to her breast. This had worked in the past. Peter would slowly remove his finger while Olivia replaced it with her nipple, getting Ashley to feed.

Once Ashley started, Olivia settled back into the couch.

"We should get married."

Olivia looked at him with a mix of awe and surprise.

". . . um . . . how?" was all she could manage.

"Just us. Forever. We don't need a priest to make it 'official' because it would be official to us no matter what."

"Yes."

"Yes?" Peter repeated her; slightly taken back that she'd answered so quickly.

"Yes." She nodded.

Peter kissed her with everything he had. Their tongues tangling together.

Peter pulled back when he felt a sharp kick in his stomach from the child squished between them.

"She just loves kicking me doesn't she." He shook his head, "Not a sharer are you sweetheart?" he asked, brushing his thumb over her cheek again.

"I thought I was your sweetheart?" Olivia asked him, looking at him with mock hurt.

"You both are. I reckon she's all you. She'll be our beautiful, feisty, stubborn-like-her-mother, daughter. She'll be just as beautiful as you and hopefully have an IQ like mine. On that note I should make a 'DADD' shirt. Since I doubt that I can find one."

"'DADD'?"

"'Dad's Against Daughter's Dating'. I always wanted a little girl; I planned on buying a shirt like that once she was old enough."

"It all depends on if there are any boys left _for_ her to date."

It was needless to say that they were both thinking of their future with their daughter.

Their moment was interrupted by a soft knock and Walter's head appearing through the crack in the door. His eyes were squeezed shut.

"Agent Dunham, are you decent?"

"Just a second, Walter."

With that Walter disappeared back out the door. Olivia quickly dressed herself while Peter patted Ashley's back until she burped before placing her down to nap.

When they exited the office, they found Walter pacing with a strange look on his face.

"Uh oh. I know that look." Peter sighed.

"What look?"

"The look Walter has right now."

Olivia looked at Walter. He looked deep in thought.

"He wants to do an experiment. He would always have that look when he had an idea he wanted to 'test' on either me or some unknowing subject." Peter turned to his father, "Walter, what do you want to do now?"

"I wish to test Olivia's abilities further."

"How much further?" Olivia asked cautiously.

"I wish to know if you can completely cover your body. In flames. Become a human torch." Walter, slightly distracted by his own words began to ramble, "You know Peter never did like the Fantastic Four films. I, personally, loved them. Though I must say the science could have been better."

"Walter. When do you want Olivia to do this?" Peter said, pulling Walter back to reality.

"Well, now, if you wish. Outside would be best."

Olivia, Peter and Walter went outside. They were just about to start when Charlie called from teh window.

"Oy. Ash is crying." That was it. Chalrie knew better then to try and comfort the child. She had thrown up on him the last time he tried to help.

"I'll be back later. Don't let him do anything that could harm you, or him." Peter kissed Olivia quickly before rushing off to tend to his child.

**-Several Hours Later: Dusk- **

Olivia took Peter's hand, pulling him out of the lab and down the hallway. They sat on the stairs, watching as the sunset across Boston.

"Liv, shouldn't we get back inside, you know, before it gets dark?"

"Nope. I want to show you something."

"Seriously, 'Livia, we have no weapons on us. We're walking targets. Free food."

"Just trust me on this."

As the sky darkened, Olivia pulled Peter out to stand in the middle of the yard. Wrapping her arms around his neck, holding him close.

"Just trust me on this, okay?" Peter nodded his 'yes'.

She buried her face into his neck, her breath washing over his skin.

Peter felt Olivia's body grow hotter and hotter. Her skin was glowing, a fire red. The flames started at her feet, slowly crawling up her legs, over her hips, her chest, eventually her whole body was on fire. But Peter couldn't feel a thing. It was barely a slight warmth over his body, not burning like it looked like it should.

Peter felt Olivia 'push' the flames onto him, the wave of energy that encompassed the two as they stood wrapped in their embrace in the middle of the night. The fire consumed all of them, but neither could feel it. Their clothes untouched, their skin unburned, nothing was scorched like it should have been. It was just them.

Slowly Olivia pulled away from him, taking his hand in hers. The flames still surrounded them both, lighting the earth around them, protecting them form the creatures that hid in the darkness.

"This is . . . I don't have words to describe this."

"Walter helped me. This is what he showed me how to do after you had left."

Peter just looked at Olivia in amazement.

"Walter thinks that he might be able to . . . essentially, harness this, my ability and create a weapon. Something bigger than the test tube ones. He seems to think that if he can create an electromagnetic 'bubble' of sorts. He thinks that he can make one big enough that my fire can sort of, i think he said, 'hitchhike' onto the wave, powering it more, so it can encompass the world. All I have to do is think of the creatures as I produce the flame, just keep pushing it out so it destroys them all and not any survivors. I know it's a long shot, but its something when we have nothing."

"Liv, I don't care where we are, what happens, as long as I have you, I'm as happy as I'll ever be."

Peter dug into his pocket and pulled out a necklace. It was one of those necklaces that had extremely large metal rings all chained together. Peter found two that seemed the right sizes and separated them from the larger rings of the necklace.

"I found this the other day. I'd wanted to have something to give to you before I asked. I thought it was appropriate given our current situation."

He took her left hand, taking the smallest of the metal rings and slipping it onto her ring finger. Olivia took the other ring and did the same to Peter.

"I love you, with all my heart. Since the day I met you, I knew you'd be a pain in my arse, you were so stubborn, determined, prepared to jump into a tank while pumped full of drugs to save the man you loved. I could only hope I'd find someone willing to do that for me. Little did I know that you'd be my someone."

"You are everything John wasn't. You risked your life for me, several times. You stuck by my side even when things got tough. You always came back."

They came together, their lips touching. The kiss was soft, passionate, and full of love. The flames grew stronger, brighter, spreading out around them, lighting the night.

**A/N: So I know that the whole electromagnetic field idea would definitely not work, **

**(Just remember I'm not even 21 yet, reality and truth means squat to me)**

**But hey, its fiction, I can do what I want, bend the world to my will, do the impossible. Besides, it's how I get to the drama later on. **

**The John Part:**** basically episode 1 happens up until where John dies – he is still found a traitor but his knowledge and connections spare him the death sentence and he is forced to help the Fringe Division. (if that makes sense) - that's how my little world here works. **


	22. Bath Time

**A/N: okay wanted to sneak in a bit of Astrid/Charlie friendship/romance.**

**Bath Time**

They hadn't told anyone about their union, but no surprise came when Charlie was the first to figure it out. The man seemed to know everything when it came to those two. Like he had some sort of psychic ability. Charlie told Astrid next. John discovered it on his own, followed by Walter, who subsequently shouted it to the rest of the lab.

Things between them only got better. Every look, gaze, stare, looked like they were having eye-sex across the lab. They always looked like they were ready to jump each other, always lingering around the other, simple touches, seemed to mean more to the duo. Something the others in the lab didn't really understand. It was like they could read each other's minds. One quick glance across the room and the two would disappear for hours at a time, returning with disheveled clothes, glazed over eyes and sated looks.

* * *

It was Peter who noticed the subtle, but (once noticed) completely obvious connection between Charlie and Astrid over the last few weeks. He was always around her, helping her with Walter and occasionally Ashley. He would bring her food if she was too busy to get it herself, and he would always be asking how she was.

Every time Peter saw them together he could see Charlie slowly, albeit _extremely_ slowly, healing. Moving on. Sonia was gone. When he had no one, when he fell to the ground, Astrid was there to help him back up again.

Peter felt glad that they had found each other. They each needed someone to help keep them on their feet. Broyles was a private man; he didn't talk about his family. Like John, he kept himself occupied by patrolling the grounds, cleaning the weapons, doing what he could security wise.

Katie and Ella had each other. And Walter, well Walter was hardly lucid enough to care.

**

* * *

Everyone was quiet today, with the occasional 'uh oh' from Walter or snore from Broyles. It was a relatively cold day outside, a sudden draft and occasional shower occurring. It wasn't that surprising since the weather had become adverse and fickle since the end of the world. The population in the air form cars, factories, all the technology just suddenly stopping, and god-knows what the sudden change could do.**

Everyone had done the 'Sunday-rainy-day' tradition. Rugged-up and asleep somewhere. They had no TV to watch old films on, so sleep was the next best option. Well, only after Walter told stories to Ella and Katie, much to Ella's dismay. Katie hadn't experienced one of Walter's stories yet. But her eagerness would wear off soon.

It was well into the afternoon when Charlie was approached by one of the 10 year olds. Charlie turned to find Ella rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"Ash is crying." She yawned as she spoke, the words barely coherent.

"Oh." Charlie did a quick scan of the lab, "Astrid?" he whispered across the lab, just loud enough for the young agent to hear.

"What's wrong?"

"Ashley's awake and crying. I don't know what to do. I don't want to wake them," Charlie pointed to the furthest corner from the office. Peter was lying on the tattered mattress; Olivia curled up in his side. Their legs were tangled together. They both looked so peaceful in their sleeping state.

"They haven't had a decent sleep in awhile."

"Oh come on. It's not that hard." Astrid dragged Charlie by the hand to the office.

Checking Ashley once over Astrid found the problem.

"She needs a bath."

They'd been lucky enough to find a ton of nappies in a still-standing store. No one wanted nappies after the world ended. That alone raised several questions. How many mothers had died protecting their babies? How many fathers had died protecting their wife and child? Worst yet, how many parents had abandoned their child to protect themselves?

Their luck continued when Astrid had found two of those cloth nappies. The reusable ones. Wash them in water and bam! clean and able to be worn again. It was a god send.

"I'll bathe her if you wash the nappy and get a fresh one."

"Deal." Charlie didn't want a repeat. Ashley just seemed to really dislike him. Astrid was growing on her. She let her hold her and wash her, but Charlie, she'd kick and cry.

They took the crying child to the bathroom. All baths, showers, anything water related were cold. Occasionally Olivia would offer to heat the water, but usually only to Ella, Katie and Astrid, since she and Peter usually showered together. Peter drew the line at her being anywhere near John while he was naked.

"Olivia usually heats up the water, you know, now she's all pyro-women and all."

"What do we do then?"

"Go back to the lab, see if you can carry one of the barrels out, we can light a fire and sick it under the basin, see if that works."

It did. Slowly, but eventually the water was humid enough that Ashley stopped crying. Instead she moved on to fussing about, splashing water everywhere. Clearly enjoying the mess she was causing. Astrid was drenched by the time she had finished bathing her. Charlie had washing her nappy and had hung it to dry near the fire lit barrel.

"Charlie?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you hold her; make sure she doesn't go under the water while I grab a cloth from somewhere." And with that Astrid disappeared from the bathroom, leaving Charlie alone with the goofy-grinning baby. Her big round eyes gazed up at him.

Charlie took the step forward so he was within reaching distance of Ashley. She reached out to him, her arms grabbing at the air in front of him. Instinctually, Charlie gave her his finger which she grabbed instantly.

She played with it, pulling on it, waving it around in her tightly clenched fist. Charlie noted how small her fingers were, they looked so frail. Charlie soon realised that Ashley wasn't crying or kicking him. She was actually letting him near her.

When Astrid returned she was delighted to see that her little plan had worked. Forcing Charlie to care for Ash in the hopes that Charlie would get over his baby-fear.

"See, it's not so bad once she gets use to you." She stood in the bathroom doorway holding several cloths.

"You set this up?"

Astrid nodded. "Guilty. But see, she's not kicking you or throwing up on you."

"Yet." Charlie smiled down at the baby as she wriggled around, sloshing the water in the basin.

Astrid dried her and dressed her before taking her back to the lab. Placing her back in her makeshift cot. Ella and Katie were back asleep, Walter having zoned out, staring into space at one of the desks.

Once she was down and asleep, Astrid silently left the office. She sat next to Charlie, both leaning against one of the walls.

"Thanks, Astrid."

"What are friends for?"


	23. Honeymoons

**A/N: **_**italics**_** are thoughts.**

**Honeymoon(s)**

Walter had become extremely bossy and annoying over the last few days. Demanding that whenever someone went outside that they find him random pieces of metal, wires… electronic devices, even if they were broken and didn't work. Whenever they brought back something that he deemed useful he praised them extensively. But whenever someone complained about his methods, his experiments or anything he was involved in he became easily agitated, exclaiming that they were all getting in his way and that if they wanted to find a solution, a cure, that they need to let him work. These little outbursts occurred at least twice a day.

As the days drew on, collectively, they had gathered hundreds of wires, thousands of pieces of metal scraps and god-knows how many broken radios, iPods, microwaves, toasters, nails, bolts, copper wiring, anything and everything they found. Walter started building a power source first, stating that he would have to leave it out in the daylight to collect enough solar power to power the device before actually using it. He hoped that in the time it took him to build the first prototype, it would have built up enough power.

Charlie hadn't known where'd the pair had disappeared to. They'd been standing with them literally minutes ago and when Charlie turned around they were gone.

He'd been talking to Walter for the better part of two minutes. Walter wanted to give Olivia drugs he had concocted that were supposed to heighten her emotion responses. Walter told Charlie it would make it easier for Olivia to tap into her emotions, even a simple emotion such as happiness would fuel her fire ability, allowing her to keep a hold of it longer.

He'd built what he was sure would create an EM field large enough to engulf the campus. If that worked then he'd add on, make it bigger and bigger as each trial was successful. And now Walter had asked Charlie to find the blonde agent.

_Bloody disappearing acts those two do. Where the hell do they go anyway?_ He wondered.

Charlie left the labs, walked the hallways, and searched the rooms.

He came upon a hallway. It was deserted, like everything else, but he could hear the sound of voices.

_Don't blame them. Far away from the lab, from the mayhem, from reality. God knows they need privacy, peace and quiet. _

Charlie opened the door he heard the voices and stopped dead in his tracks. This was not something he'd ever wanted to see.

Olivia, shirtless, braless, wearing only her underwear, pressed against Peter's bare chest while he stood in his jeans between her legs.

Olivia's long legs were wrapped securely around his waist, pushing them as close as possible. Olivia was facing Charlie, but her eyes were closed, her head thrown back as Peter kissed down her neck, sucking on her pulse point.

Charlie stood frozen, unable to move. Literally shocked in place. He'd always viewed Olivia as a close friend, a partner, a non-blood sister. Seeing someone he saw as a sibling in such a . . . compromising position was not on his list of things to see . . . _ever_.

This was the first time Charlie truly noticed Olivia's body. Not in a sexual way, though.

She'd always covered it up. Peter, seemingly, was the only one who had seen how badly George, had hurt her. Scars marked her smooth skin. Some scars were raised, bumps in her flesh, others flat, but the skin shiny where the cut had healed.

There was a large scar that sliced up from her hip and curved around to her back. Another across her arm and several smaller ones that were near-invisible.

The scar that caught his attention was the large bite mark just above her breast. He fumed inside. George had done all this to her, and for what? So he could get off on watching her in pain before he decided to eat her?

When Olivia started moaning, Charlie found the strength to forcibly cough. He'd been too caught up in his anger over her wounds, that he didn't notice that things had gotten heated between the couple. Hands were roaming further, tongues tangling, caresses lingering.

Olivia looked up to see who had disturbed them, Peter's lips barely grazing over her collarbone.

"What do you want, Charlie?" came Olivia's slightly dazed voice. She clung to Peter, attempting to shield her body from Charlie's view. Was she embarrassed about the scars or her bare breasts?

"Um . . . Dr Bishop wanted me to find you. Said something about more tests. But your busy," he went to leave,

"Tell Walter we'll be there in an hour." Peter growled at the interruption, his attention now completely focused back on Olivia.

With that Charlie left, closing the door and hurriedly walking back to the lab.

When he entered the lab, he came face to face with a disappointed Walter.

"Could you not find her?"

"Ah, no, Walter, I found her." Came the red-faced Charlie's response. He'd never be able to look at Olivia and Peter the same.

"Oh, is she coming?"

"They said they'd be here in an hour or so."

"Were they busy?" Walter mustn't have been paying attention; usually he was the first to 'get' these things, and making them painfully obvious to the rest of the lab.

"You could say that."

"What so important? Are they okay?" Astrid asked, joining the conversation. Broyles and John had been listening as well. Nothing better to do anyway.

"I . . . they . . ." he made strange hand gestures, unable to find words, embarrassed enough already, "they're . . ."

Everyone was looking at him with quizzical eyes.

"Honeymoon." Charlie stated simply, letting out the breath he'd been holding.

The room was filled with "Oh's" and Walter's nonchalant,

"Again?"

"This is like, their 3rd since they got married, well as married as they'll ever be." Astrid laughed. Their sneaking around hadn't been overlooked by the younger agent. By any of them.

**A/N: Short, but the continuation is next – what Charlie interrupted :P **


	24. A Fiery Union, of the Unusual Sort

**A/N: this is what happened after Charlie left Peter and Olivia in the room last chapter. **

**A Fiery Union, of the Unusual Sort **

The door hadn't even closed before Olivia's hands resumed their tasks of undressing. She tugged on the waistband of Peter's jeans, as he returned to kissing down her neck, over her collarbone, his hands gripping her thighs.

Olivia was barely able to register Peter's breathy voice through her desire-clouded mind.

"Why does Walter want you for more tests?"

"Don't know." She voice broke as Peter continued his oral assault, moving down her neck to suck on the skin just above her breasts.

"Earlier, he said something . . . about wanting . . . to extend my emotional response,"

"Emotional response," he repeated, nodding slightly,

Olivia could feel Peter smirking against her skin, "I'm sure I can get a pretty impressive, not to mention vocal response from you in about 10 minutes."

Olivia laughed at his audacity.

They continued as if Charlie hadn't interrupted them.

Olivia managed to push Peter's pants down along with his boxers, pooling at his ankles where he kicked them off. He stood before her, ready, extremely aware of the beautiful, practically naked women sitting in front of him. Olivia's hands found his hair, her fingers tangling in it as Peter sucked on her pulse point.

She shifted so she was pressed up against him, completely. Peter groaned at the contact, feeling her waiting heat through the cotton of her panties. Peter tried to ground his hips into hers, trying to create more friction between them, resulting in a pleasurable groan from Olivia. She couldn't help but giggle slightly at his eager attempts.

Pulling one hand from his hair, she dragged it, torturously slowly down his chest to stroke him. He instantly bucked into her hand, resting his head on her shoulder as her fingers lightly brushed up his shaft, her thumb rubbing his tip. The guttural moan and sharp intake of breath only encouraged Olivia. When Olivia let go, Peter growled at her, completely driven by lust. Olivia smirked at him.

Gaining control of himself, he hooked his fingers in the waistband of her panties, pulling them down, while Olivia lifted her body. Seconds after her panties hit the floor, Peter pulled her closer, entering her hard and fast.

"Oh, God, Peter!" she gasped, her breath coming out fast at the force. She didn't care how hard he took her, as long as he did. As long as he clung to her like she was his lifeline, fell over the edge with her. She wanted to be with him, in every sense of the word.

Her nails bit into her back as she clung to him

Peter lowered his head to kiss each breast, subtly nudging Olivia away so he could take one of nipples in his mouth, sucking it gently, before giving the same attention to the other.

He moved inside of her, pushing in all the way, as deep as he could. He pushed her back, so she lay horizontal on the classroom desk, Peter moving with her so he was above her, him never leaving her body.

This made it easy for him to penetrate deeper inside of her, Olivia gasping as he moved over her sensitive spot. He did this several times, hitting the same spot. He could feel Olivia clenching around him. Her lips parting as she chocked on the scream that threatened to escape.

Feeling his own release and Olivia's inevitable scream, Peter kissed her long and hard just as he came inside of her. Peter continued to ride out his orgasm.

Peter locked eyes with Olivia, watching her writhe beneath him. Her breath coming out in sharp gasps that turned into very loud moans. He felt her clench suddenly and then . . . everything felt hot. Peter watched as Olivia's iris's turned a fire red, and as her hair caught alight. The flames moving down her body, up his arms and over his. Spreading, engulfing them completely as she came under him.

Peter felt a power surge through him, stirring him again. Olivia was still moving her hips up, thrusting against him, riding out her orgasm, when Peter suddenly gasped for air, a second orgasm washing through him, the power pushing his release. He unconsciously bucked into her, thrusting his hips against hers as she did.

The flames died down as Olivia came down from her high, eventually being reduced to a slight heat of her skin and her fiery iris's. They were both flushed and sated. Collapsed, together on the table. He reluctantly pulled out of her, Olivia groaning in protest as he shifted to her side, Olivia tangling her legs with his on the desk. Peter stroked up and down her arm as they lay there.

"We have to do that again." Kissing up her chest, her neck, lingering on the corner of her lips.

"Definitely." She smiled sweetly at him, turning her head so she could kiss him.

They were silent for a few minutes, unmoving, comfortable, tangled there together.

"I only have one thing to say." Peter murmured against her skin,

"Hmm, and what's that?"

"I like _this_ 'emotional' response."

**A/N: short, P/O – but hey, at least it's smut :P **


	25. Walter, being well, Walter

**A/N: decided to put in a bit of embarrassing/funny Walter – tell me what you think**

**Walter, being well, Walter**

Walter's drug cocktail did exactly as he had planned. Every emotion Olivia felt became heightened. She was overly happy at one moment, and easily upset the next. It wasn't just emotions, she was always full of energy, regardless of how long she slept. Everything was okay since Peter had a very _effective _way of keeping her happy, sated and use up a lot of her new-found energy.

"How long until she's . . . normal?" Peter asked Walter one day.

It wasn't that Peter didn't mind his liaisons with Olivia, he enjoyed them just as much as she did, but her constant sexual cravings were being to take its toll. One sexual thought, one glance at Peter across the lab and her desire was instantly intensified because of Walter's drugs. She'd practically jump him in the middle of the lab. Peter had tried to, calmly and politely refuse, trying to tell her that though she seems to have gained quite a stamina, he hadn't been given the drug, he got tired after several rounds. But as usual, Olivia would pout at him and then completely ignore him until he gave in and gave her what she wanted.

She was like a child who didn't get something they wanted.

Surprisingly, Walter was the first one to mention something none of them had thought about yet.

"I, for one, am excited about Olivia's extreme sexual desire."

Peter was thrown back by his statement.

"What did you say, Walter?"

"Well, son, you and Agent Dunham have been regularly having intercourse, so it is only logical to assume that she will be pregnant again soon, if not already." Walter was unaware of the shocked looks form everyone in the lab,

"Well, we can't expect Ashley to be my only grandchild now can we? Ooh, I hope the next one is a boy. You can name him 'Walter'. Or 'Peter junior'."

The sudden look of horror across Peter's face went unnoticed by Walter as he continued to ramble off boy names.

Neither Peter nor Olivia had thought about the consequences, Peter too caught up in pleasing his wife.

Ashley had been a fluke, a very good fluke (and Peter would change nothing about her or how she came to be). But he didn't want to have to burden Olivia or the others in the lab with another child. Not to mention what the child would have to grow up in. It was bad enough that Ashley was born in such a harsh world.

"What if she _is_ pregnant?" Peter murmured, "right now? No child should grow up in this. I love Ashley but she deserves better."

They all looked over at the sleeping women. Olivia's arms wrapped protectively around Ashley, hugging her as close as she could.

Ashley was awake now, her small fingers twirling a lock of Olivia's hair as she watched it in awe.

"Has she been sick lately? Any change in her eating habits?" Walter inquired of Peter,

"No, not that I've noticed."

"Well, son, you should find some other way to keep her happy. Perhaps" Walter started walking away, "and when she wakes, tell her that I would like to see her in the yard." And with that Walter disappeared out the doors.

oOo

Olivia found Walter in the yard, having set up . . . something.

"Walter, what is this? Peter said that you wanted to see me?"

"Here, my dear, is a course I've designed. It is for you to use whenever you please, to help control your abilities and emotions."

"Okay."

"Now, I'm going to tell you some things and you are to tell me what emotional reaction you experience. I then want you to control it, channel it into a fire-ball, as they are called, and hold it for 30 seconds in front of you. I then want you to throw it towards the target on that tree."

Olivia followed his pointed finger, and found a large tree several meters away with a bow-and-arrow target draw on it.

"Ready, my dear?"

Olivia nodded.

"Think of your sister. Think of Rachel."

Olivia closed her eyes, thinking back to when Rach and Ella had first shown up at her doorstep needing a place to stay. She remembered having a flour-fight with her whilst trying to make cookies. She thought back to when she defended her from Greg, how she comforted her when Greg gave her the divorce papers.

"What do you feel?"

"Protective. No matter where she would be, I always felt like I had to protect her from something."

"And now that she is dead?"

"I miss her. I long to see her looking at me, to hold her hand."

Olivia felt the heat start to rise in her. Her eyes burning, iris's changing to a fiery red.

"Good. Now focus on those emotions and create a ball of fire in from of you."

Olivia did this. Focusing on everything about Rachel, everything that reminded Olivia of her.

Slowly, a ball of flames came together a meter in front of her, the flames appearing out of nowhere, adding to the ball as it grew bigger. It stopped once it was the size of a basketball.

"Now throw it. Use your mind and aim for the target."

She did as she was told. The ball scorching the tree, but nowhere near the target.

"That was good. We just need to find a deeper emotion. Something that gives you a larger emotional response."

"Okay. How long will this take, Walter?"

"As long as is needed, my dear."

oOo

They were at it for hours. Each time Walter conjured up an emotion in her, it wasn't enough. They'd moved away from her family and work and were now, much to Olivia's reluctance, Walter had chosen her past and present lovers.

"And what about that man from Germany, Peter said his name was Lucas, I think. How do you feel about him?"

"I feel . . . nothing. Friendship maybe, there might be some anger."

"Anger, why?"

"He left me for a job."

"How powerful is that emotion in you?"

"It's not even causing a spark. Walter, we've been at it for hours. I'm tired. Can we do this tomorrow?" Olivia was still standing while Walter had taken a seat on the grass. He refused to let her sit down claiming that it would cause her to relax and make it harder to determined an emotion.

"What about John Scott. How do you feel about him?"

"At what point in time?"

"Alright, when you first met him?"

"Love. I guess. Well, what I thought was love."

"And after he betrayed you?"

"Anger. Confusion."

"And now?"

"Friendship. He's a good man, he'll protect us all." Olivia opened her eyes and looked at the (mad) scientist.

"Walter it's not working. I've missed the target all 9 times I've managed to create a ball of fire. It's not working."

"How do you feel towards Peter?" Walter continued as if she hadn't said anything.

The sound of his name made lower parts of her tingle.

"Love. Passion. And lust. Right now I want to drag him down the hallway and . . ." she stopped mid sentence, realising what she was about to say, and in front of whom.

Walter looked at her with that eager, intrigued and all together creepy smile. Like he knew some dirty secret and would blabber to everyone.

Olivia glared at him,

"Go on." Olivia's glare got even angrier, "I'm talking about channelling it, Agent Dunham." Olivia didn't believe him half as much but continued.

The ball gathering in front of her. She threw it at the target. Missing the bullseye by one circle.

"The closest yet."

They continued on. The sun starting to set before Walter found the right emotion and its trigger.

Olivia had returned to the lab crying, her body shaking. Something had scared her, and no one but Walter knew what.

**A/N: can anyone guess what it was? **


	26. Awwwkward

**Awwwkward**

"George. As in the man who ate those people in the vault. The one who tortured Olivia and locked Ella in with body parts?" John spoke.

He, Peter, Broyles, Charlie and Astrid circled Walter. They were all angry at him. He hadn't the right to do this. To ask this of Olivia.

Olivia had take Katie, Ella and Ashley outside to play. Per Peter's request, of course. He wanted a moment without her there to explode at his father.

"I should have known fear would be

"You're talking about making her relive one of the most traumatic moments in her life!" Peter yelled at his father, his face red with anger, "Do you not remember how long it took for her to heal? God knows she could still be having nightmares—"

"Nightmares are good. They force deeper emotions to the surface – ones that are hidden in our subconscious and allowed to show when we sleep, that relaxing state. Our minds cannot shut them out."

"No, Walter. I will not let you do this to her."

"Then you are dooming the rest of us."

"What?"

"I need Olivia's strongest emotion. The stronger it is, the longer it will last and further it will travel. With the help of my EM device, we _can_ save the world."

Peter thought over it for a moment, "There might be another . . . emotion. You said that she aimed and hit just as good with lust and me as she did for 'George'?"

"Yes, but she reacted more to her memories of George, her response was stronger."

"What if she had . . . another way to gain a stronger response from lust."

"What are talking about?" Astrid asked,

"Um . . ." Peter didn't know how exactly to say it. He was standing in front of his father, Olivia's ex boyfriend, her boss, her best friend, and the only female, Astrid. Awkward, would be an understatement.

So Peter just said, spilled it out and tried desperately to pretend that it was like normal conversation.

"When we were together, she kind of caught on fire when she . . . well, you know." He received mixed looks of stun, I-don't-want-to-know-this gazes and Walter's, intrigue.

"I could feel it too, like she projected it over me, but I wasn't burnt. It was powerful, extremely powerful. Could that work instead of using her emotions from George?"

"Quite possibly. Sexual arousal is a very good emotional response. Very powerful. I've always told Agent Dunham about your sexual prowess." Walter nudged Peter in the arm; he wore a huge grin, like he'd been the one that got them together. Playing Cupid he was.

"Did this happen before or after I . . . interrupted?" Charlie asked, more wondering if he had missed something he'd never want to see by seconds.

"After." Peter answered, "can we use that with the generator instead?"

"Well, I would greatly like to test this theory of yours, Peter."

"Test how, Walter?" Peter questioned, glaring at his father, trying to figure out his intentions, "You're not going to be in the same room if this happens. You will be far, _far_ away."

"Of course." Walter stated as if it was his intentions all long. Peter highly doubted. "I was merely suggesting that we set the device for a low burst and leave it in the room. That way when Olivia—"

"catches on fire!" Peter added before his father could say a certain other word that would have made this situation even more awkward,

". . . yes, catches on fire, the fire will fuel the device further and if I make the right calculations, I can set it so it only engulfs the creatures. We will probably feel a slight heat on our skin, a slight tingle as the wave goes through us. We will definitely know when it occurs." Walter became excited just explaining it, "Peter, may we try it? Soon?"

"Maybe. But it's already getting dark. Olivia will be back soon with the kids and then we are all sleeping. I'll take first watch, don't really see the point since we know the creatures are scared of us, well rather Olivia."

This was true. Ever since her exploding incident, the creatures, being even partially sentient, knew that the lab was dangerous.

Olivia, Ashley, Ella and Katie returned soon after. Astrid had taken to telling the girls a story before they went to bed. Astrid was good at telling stories. She always gave them happy endings, and made the girls the character heroes.

Broyles, John and Charlie did what they usually did when they spelt the nights. Locking the double doors, Charlie and John slept against the wall on the left side, Broyles on the right.

Walter had worn himself out making adjustments to his EM device and was asleep on the desk.

Olivia fed Ashley like she did every night before putting her down to sleep. Peter was sitting on the ground, wide awake playing with the deck of cards.

"You should sleep." Peter shifted so he could wrap his free arm around her shoulders as she snuggled against his side.

"I'm not tired."

They sat in silence for a while.

"What did you talk to Walter about?"

"I don't want him using . . . _those_ memories just because of the emotional response you have."

"Do you have any better ideas, then?"

"Well, yes."

"Are you going to share?"

"Remember how you were on fire, when you came? How the fire spread over both of us?"

"Yeah." A small blush crept onto her cheeks.

"Well, that. Lust. Want. Sex. Whatever you want to call it."

"More fun than the other way." She smirked. She leant her head up to kiss him. When Peter responded eagerly, she deepened the kiss, biting his bottom lip softly, their tongues tangling.

"Tomorrow. Not right now." He pulled back and couldn't help but smile as Olivia pouted up at him.

"Fine." She huffed, "but we are taking our good sweet time tomorrow then. If it all depends on how well you pleasure _me_. I'll make you go _all day_." She teased.

**A/N: sorry it took awhile to upload, I got distracted with a new story I'm writing. That should be up today or tomorrow. It'll be on the promo for 3x19 (OMG so excited)**

**Anyway, thank you to my 5 reviews last chapter, I hope to get as many this time round : ) **


	27. Tingles and Fuzzy Feelings

**Tingles and Fuzzy Feelings**

"But what if the device malfunctions? Neither you, nor Agent Dunham can fix it." Walter protested.

"We'll come and get you. You are _not_ standing outside the door. You and everyone else will be in the lab."

Peter had spent a good 20 minutes arguing with Walter of how awkward it would be, not to mention wrong, if he "waited" outside while they 'did their thing' as Walter (kindly) put it. Fortunately, Astrid dragged him away. But not before he listed several ways for Peter to sexual arouse Olivia. It was bad enough that everyone in the lab will know _when_ it happens, without having his father giving him advice on sex. Peter not only didn't want to know that his father knew this, or the stories of Walter and his mother that accompanied them.

They had all agreed that they'd wait til this was over and then explore the hive nearby, see what was done. It was the safer alternative of capturing a live creature on the off chance it did work.

Olivia was more than willing to do this. It'd be much more pleasurable then Walter's original idea. Pun definitely intended. So it came to no surprise to Peter, that once Walter had been taken away, Olivia jumped him the second he entered the room. Kicking the door shut, he stumbled with the sudden weight, managing to push her against the wall.

She fiercely kissed him, her hands running through his hair, holding her to him. He moved his hands down to cup her buttocks, hoisting her up against the wall, hands on her thighs. He pushed his hips against hers, watching as her eyes fluttered, and her mouth agape as she gasped at the tingling sensations that shot through her body, pooling at the bottom of her stomach. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer.

Their tongues tangled, fighting the other for dominance. Olivia tugged Peter's shirt over his head, letting it fall to the floor. She ran her hands down his bare chest, her fingertips tracing the curves. When her hands started working in his belt, Peter pushed against her harder, using the wall and his hips to keep her up as he pulled her hands away and held them above her head. She groaned in displeasure.

"It's all about you, Liv. We'll get to me later."

He kissed down her neck, sucking on her pulse point. Removing her shirt and bra, discarding them on the floor, he latched onto a nipple, sucking it gently. He wasn't sure if they were still sore or sensitive, but from the encouraging moans she gave, he sucked harder. Olivia's head fell back at his oral ministrations, her eyes shut as wave after wave of pleasure surged through her, all building, piling together.

Peter felt she was close, felt the heat through their pants. It couldn't end this soon. As much as he hated to admit it, Walter was right. If they wanted a strong enough release of energy, they needed to build it. This meant he had to slow down, finish the task of undressing her first, and give her the time to calm down a notch. Olivia could control when it happened, control the flames, but not the flames power, the more the build up the stronger the flame would be.

Olivia, as predicated, didn't agree with his sudden withdrawal and clung to him, trying to bring him back to her.

He let her go, allowing her feet to touch the ground again. She wrapped her arms around his waist as she kissed down his jaw, his neck to suck on his pulse point, mirroring his earlier actions. He pushed her back against the wall.

His hands fumbled with her jeans as he spoke, "All. About. You." He pulled her zipper down on 'you' as emphasis.

"Uh huh." She was too caught up in her lust clouded mind to comprehend his words fully. She watched as he knelt in front of her and oh so painfully slowly pulled her jeans over her hips, down her long legs. He let her kick them off along with her shoes. He trailed his fingertips up her leg, trailing over her inside thigh. He felt her shiver.

Once his fingers reached the top of her panties he hooked two fingers in them and slowly pulled them down to her ankles as well.

He nudged her thighs apart, kissing his way down her stomach, his face inches from her. She could feel his breath, hot over her. She felt her body shudder at his close proximity.

She'd been expecting him to torture her further, to take his time. But she had been expecting to move so quickly. His tongue flicked out, faster then she realised, to taste her. Olivia sucked in a sharp breath, already quivering under his swift touch. Her hands moved to lean on his shoulders, keeping her steady.

He parted her folds so he could gain better access. Sucking on her, flicking his tongue over her and relishing in the orgasmic sounds she made. He could feel himself harden against his jeans, straining against them. But he continued, he had to ignore his own urges. This was all about Olivia. He needed to make this better then amazing for her. After all, the larger the reaction, the longer and farther the device would work.

When he pushed a finger inside her, she bucked against him, pushing him deep, making her moan with pleasure. Encouraged, he slid a second finger inside, curling them. He felt her tighten around his fingers, her breathing hitching as he moved them inside her.

"I . . ." she breathed, trying to form words, "I want . . . you. Now." She gasped.

More than willing to help and silently glad (the bulge in his pants now painfully obvious and not going away anytime soon, not with the sounds she was making). Quickly removing his fingers, he hoisted her up, carrying her over to the nearest desk. He was about to put her down when she spoke, her voice hoarse.

"I want to be on top this time."

He spun them around, still holding Olivia to his body as he sat against the desk. His pants were quickly discarded

Once his pants were gone, she shoved him back, so he lay across the desk. She straddled him, pressing her body against the length of his. She felt the effect she had on him pressed hard against her thigh.

She giggled, "And I thought you said this was about me."

"Oh it is. But I'm more than willing to help with that."

"Thought you might." Kissing him once more, she sat up, pushing her hips against his, watching his eyes roll back.

Olivia danced her fingers down his chest to hold him, positioning him at her entrance.

Slowly she let him fill her, burying him all the way in her warmth. She stayed still for a moment, adjusting, but the stillness didn't last long. Soon she was moving, rocking against him, her hands resting on his chest for support.

At that moment, Olivia didn't care, about anything. She didn't care that everyone in the lab knew what they were doing, waiting. She didn't care that if this didn't work, they may not have another way to save the world. She didn't care about _anything_. And she didn't feel guilty at all. It was just her and Peter. All that mattered was them. Together.

As she moved, Peter continued to touch her, his fingers applying just enough pressure. She clenched around him suddenly, her mouth opened in a silent scream.

That's when he felt it. The heat. It burned up through her body, down through his. It was just like the last time. The heat soon became flames, but they didn't burn. The power surged back and forth between them, rebounding. Coursing through them. As the pleasure built, so did the power inside them.

Plain sex wouldn't be the same. This . . . this new power, the fire in Olivia, made sex better. More pleasurable. It was like the power amplified their reactions. Damn Walter, always being right.

Peter felt she was close. Extremely close. One quick glance at the device near the door told him that it was still working. God he hoped it worked. If it didn't then he'd be putting up with more sex-talks from Walter. Most likely on his "lack of stamina and prowess" as Walter would jump to conclusions. But then again, he wouldn't mind doing this, with Olivia, again. Sometime soon. Device or not.

Her nails dug into his chest. It wasn't painful if anything, it fuelled his desire. She started moving faster atop him.

When she fell over, it was like the world had stopped. Everything was slowed down. Peter could literally see the sudden burst of energy from Olivia, the flames spiralling around her. As predicted, the device in the room reacted with the power, with Olivia's fire. The EM and the fire merged together, the fire fuelling the device – pushing it outwards.

A large . . . (could it be called a wave?) wave of sorts, emanating from the room, spread, engulfing the room, the hallways outside, and down past the lab.

In the lab, Walter paced back and forth. Walter rarely paced. Broyles, John and Charlie had taken to sitting on the floor. Bored out of their minds. It may have only been 40 minutes but to them, it felt like hours. They all knew what was happening between their friends right at this very minute. Not something they, as an ex, a friend and a boss, wanted to dwell on too much. Astrid was in the office with Ella, Katie and Ashley. Ashley had only just fallen asleep. She knew her parents weren't around and had decided that that wasn't acceptable and had thrown a mini-tantrum. Well as much as a tantrum a baby could throw.

The lab was silent. But that was broken when everyone suddenly felt a . . . pulse, go through them. Like a heat wave you'd feel if you stepped out of an air-conned car into blistering heat.

"Did anyone else feel that, or was it just me?" Charlie asked.

"No, I felt it too." John answered.

They all stood up, walking to meet together in the middle of the lab.

"Well, about time." Walter huffed. "I had been expecting a quicker performance from my son." Walter shook his head in disappointment. "My son is a 'Bishop' after all."

Astrid appeared from the office, "You _did_ put a big burden on his shoulders, Walter. You should at least let them take their time."

"Well, I'm sorry if the survival of mankind has to wait for my son and Agent Dunham."

Walter huffed and walked off, heading for the room, much to Astrid's protests.

"They are no longer sexually engaged, so I'm not going to interrupt anything, Astrix."

"Walter!" she called after him, but he ignored her, "Well, then knock first."

Once he was gone, everyone started laughing, even Broyles. The scientist had his moments. At least they knew that Olivia wasn't armed.

oOo

Broyles, John, Peter and Charlie ventured outside the next day. Armed to the teeth. Just in case. No one wanted to be jumped by a pissed off creature who hadn't died in the fire.

As predicted, the hive was burnt ash. Some creatures only half burned. The 'wave' only reached halfway through the hive, but it had worked. Walter's device had worked and the creatures were dead.

They were the bringers of good news. Everyone celebrated (as much as one could in their situation) and Walter started right away on a bigger version of his device. He was certain that, now Olivia could provide an energy source for the device, along with the fire needed to eradicate the creatures, all he needed to do was build it bigger, so that Olivia's fire and the EM wave can merge successfully together.

No pressure, right?

**A/N: sorry for any continuity errors – I kinda wrote this stop-start. I kept getting interrupted : ( **

**Just 2 more chapters to go (now I'm sad, I've had fun writing this) **


	28. A Saviour    or Three

**A/N: sorry this is late, I went on a holiday with some friends, but our plane got delayed coming back -_- **

**Anyway, I don't really like this chapter and I've gone over it more than 8 times. **

**A Saviour . . . or Three**

"You heard what Walter said!" Peter yelled.

They had been arguing for the better part of an hour. The others in the lab trying to act like nothing was going on and go about like normal, but even Ashley knew something was wrong because she kept fussing about, crawling everywhere, trying to get into the office, to get to her parents. Charlie was the unfortunate "chaser" of Ashley, but with Astrid's help they managed to entertain her with the deck of cards. She seemed to enjoy knocking over Charlie's card tower.

"I know what Walter said! But I don't care. This isn't about us anymore! There are still people out there; there _will_ be other's who have survived. We are possibly the only people who can put a stop to this, and if that means being in a dangerous situation, then fine!" Olivia yelled back.

"Walter said that the device will essentially latch onto you, drain you of the energy the fire creates! We don't know what that could do to you? It could kill you!"

"I've had enough arguing with you." She looked down at the floor, solemn.

"I'm doing this, and when I do, I would want you to be the one with me." Her voice became soft, broken, "I'd rather not have to use my memories of . . . that man."

"I can't lose you." Peter took a step forward, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her to him. "Ashley can't lose you. I don't want her to grow up without a mom. I don't want to lose you, Liv."

"You won't. But I can't _not_ do something. Especially when we, partially, started this. The creature escaped _us_ and now _we_ can put an end to them. I have to do this, Peter."

"I know." He smiled warmly at her, then leaning to kiss her hair. "But I can't stop worrying about you. You would dive head first into the most deadly of situations if it meant saving a life or two. It's who you are, I know."

Peter knew Olivia, possibly better then herself. She could never let something go. He found her some nights (long before all this happened) asleep at the lab, desk covered in papers, notes, case-related bits and pieces.

**oOo**

A few hours later, Walter announced the device's completion. They set it up and Peter and Olivia disappeared into the room. They'd decided, for safety, in case something _did_ happen, to use a closer room.

Normally in a situation that involved waiting, Walter would be chewing happily on a liquorice stick. But there was none, so Walter took up pacing . . . again. Mumbling to himself, rambling off formulas for things even Astrid didn't recognise as recent experiments.

Twice already, John _and_ Charlie told the scientist to keep quiet. Broyles, finding the entire situation disquieted, kept quiet, tending to the two ten year olds. He'd taken up telling stories to them. It reminded him of when he'd read to his niece. It was a simple gesture of comfort, safety, security. Something that the two girls needed.

Everyone else just sat around and waited. It was different then their normal-daytime-laziness. They were waiting for 'that thing' to happen, and no one wanted to do anything else in case they missed it or something happened.

It felt like hours had gone by before everyone jumped from the sudden bang of the lab doors opening. Peter stumbled in, carrying Olivia in his arms. A blanket had been wrapped around her and Peter had managed to get his own pants on, but not hers. He placed her on the floor before turning to his father,

"It won't stop, Walter!"

"What happened, son?"

Everyone was gathered around them. Trying to see what was happening.

"Everything was fine, just like last time. The device whirred again and started taking on Olivia's energy. We saw it work."

"We didn't feel anything. There wasn't a wave like last time." Astrid added.

"It was fine. We were about to come back when she collapsed. I could actually _see_ the energy draining form her, the device kept taking it from her."

"Ah, I thought this might happen—"

"You knew! You knew this would happen?" Peter screamed at his father. His face red with anger. But he turned back to Olivia.

"Can someone go and get the device, I shall examine it, find the problem." Walter asked.

John sprinted from the lab, returning with the device in his hands seconds later.

"Ah, thank you. Place it over there." John did as he was told, leaving the device on the table.

"Peter," Olivia murmured,

"Hey, hey. I'm here. How do you feel?"

"Like I'm having the life sucked out of me." She tried to laugh, but only succeeded in coughing.

"Yeah, well, just hang in there, Walter's working on it."

"I don't feel too good, Peter."

Now that he thought about it, she was slowly getting paler. Like the life was literally being taken from her, not just her fire-energy.

They watched Walter fiddle around. Peter cradling Olivia as she tried to stay awake.

"There! I think it's off." Walter cheered.

"You think?" Peter questioned.

"It's off." Walter nodded his affirmation.

"I'm afraid I will have to modify it, make it safer for Olivia to use."

"No, Walter. No more tests, experiments, devices. No more."

He stroked Olivia's face tenderly, watching as colour seeped back into her cheeks.

No one had noticed the device starting to shake on the table, until it was too late. Olivia had just stood up, Peter helping her keep balanced when they heard Charlie.

"Walter!" he yelled,

The device exploded. Shrapnel flew out everywhere, in all directions. But there was the wave, too. It rode out the explosion and spread.

Those closest to the device, Peter, Olivia, Walter and Charlie were thrown backwards. Olivia was thrown onto the desk, the desk breaking under the sudden weight. She landed awkwardly on the floor, her head hitting the ground hard, knocking her out. Charlie was thrown into the wall. Walter and Peter landed on their backs several meters back.

The girls screamed and Ashley started crying uncontrollably.

Eventually, everyone gained their equilibrium again. Astrid, running to the office, checking on the girls and picking Ashley up, stroking her back until she calmed down.

Outside, they could here screams. Not human screams. Creature screams. They were dying.

"How?" Astrid asked, bewildered.

"The device, it must have absorbed enough energy, and it was stored inside, that's why it didn't create the wave earlier. It rode the explosion, like it did with Olivia's the first time." Walter was too caught up in the 'amazing-ness' of it all to notice everything else behind him.

"Liv?" Peter was crouched over Olivia again. She lay limp on the floor.

"Was she hit by anything?"

"I . . . I don't know. She . . . she hit the desk, and I think she might've hit her head." Peter stumbled/crawled towards his wife. "Liv, answer me!" he shook her arm, his other hand checking her pulse and stroking her face.

"What do we do?" Astrid asked as she tried to get Ashley back to sleep. They didn't need a crying child wanting her mother, especially when her mother couldn't help.

"Use Walter's ultrasound device, check to see if she's got any internal bleeding. It should work the same." Charlie suggested.

Peter did that. Keeping her covered appropriately as he moved the wand down her body. Starting with her neck and chest, moving to her stomach.

But he didn't find any bleeding or anything wrong for that matter.

"What is that? It's like . . ." he trailed off, trying to find a word to describe what he was seeing.

Everyone was staring at the small screen, intrigued but unsure of what to make of it.

The realisation hit everyone at the same time.

"Is that . . .?" Peter asked, unbelieving.

"I think it is." Charlie stared in awe at the screen.

On the screen were two small figures, barely visible, inside

"Oh my god!" John asked.

"Her being pregnant does answer a few questions." Walter mumbled, more to himself, but it was overheard by the others.

"What questions, Walter?" Peter asked, his complete focus on Olivia, checking her over constantly.

"The device kept taking her energy because she was still _producing _the energy. She may have stopped the fire, but the baby hadn't, it was adding to the energy and the device kept taking until it overloaded. Olivia can control it, she can stop it at will, the baby can't—" Walter was cut off mid-sentence by Charlie's voice.

"Babies." Everyone turned to Charlie who was staring at the small screen, "There's . . . there's two . . . things . . ." he waved his finger over the two 'blob-like-images', unable to describe what he was seeing,

Everyone pushed to get a look at the screen.

"She's having twins?" Astrid let out the breath she'd been holding in a half gasp, half laugh.

"Oh my . . . what about Liv?"

Walter pushed past and started examining her.

"Slight concussion, I think. I can make a concoction that will help her wake sooner—"

"No, Walter. Definitely not _now._"

"Well, she will wake soon, maybe a few hours."

"So she's going to be fine? _They're_ going to be fine?" Peter asked again, just so it could sink in.

"Yes, son. They will be fine." Walter patted his son on the back in congratulations. He started walking away, but stopped and looked at him, his face full of hope.

"Do you think Olivia will name one 'Walter'? If it's a boy, of course?"

Peter just laughed, and so did everyone else.

**A/N: **

**I refused to write smut because there was NOT even ONE REVIEW for chapter 27! So please review and you will be rewarded with smut in the last chapter :D**


	29. Epilogue, aka Under The Stars

**PLEASE READ **

**A/N: okay so I apologize to anyone who never received the chapter update for chapter 27. I'm not sure what happened there, but it turns out many of you didn't get the email. **

**A ****very small**** amount of Charlie/Astrid**

**Sorry it took so long, honestly, I didn't want it to end. **

**The first two paragraph block thingies are more a catch up/describe of the last few years, then on to the ending : (**

* * *

**Epilogue **

**(a.k.a. Under The Stars)**

**2016**

– **3 years later**

More people had survived then they'd originally thought. In Boston, a total of 306 people had survived. A small number for a city of that size, but in the long run, survivors were all that mattered. Makeshift homes (a.k.a. tents made of rag and what else the occupants could gather) had been set up down streets, all close together. Fire barrels lined the gaps between the rag-tents and solar-powered torches hung from the tent posts. Just in case.

But Walter was so convinced that the creatures were gone, he'd volunteered to stay the night outside. Peter managed to convince him not to.

Everyone had started calling the day Olivia had managed to destroy the creatures, 'that day'.It was simple and easy. Besides, not many people were privy of the exact details. There were still classified need-to-know things. Broyles

Broyles, being the man of power from the FBI spent most of the days with the military men, coordinating searches and provisions. More people were found each day.

Broyles and John had the tent closest to the military encampment. Astrid and Charlie shared a tent further down the road, and Peter and Olivia and their children shared a tent next to Astrid and Charlie's with Walter sharing a tent with the girls. Ella and Katie each had celebrated their 13th birthdays a few months ago. Ashley was 3 and a half. She got annoyed when people forgot to add the 'half'. She had the same annoyed expression as her mother.

The twins, Connor and Charlotte just recently turned 2. While Ashley was like her mother, Charlotte displayed definite 'Peter' traits, while Connor had hints of Walter . . . somehow. Connor had taken a fondness to Astrid, just like Walter.

Charlie was much better around the children. Having completely gotten over his fear of accidentally injuring either of the babies. Charlotte had taken quite the fancy to Charlie. Which impressed Astrid. A lot.

Their relationship had started a few days after 'that day'. Their first date consisted of a dinner for two, which was tinned pea soup, under the stars. This was a first, for any of them, being able to just sit and look up at the stars. According to Olivia, Astrid had told her it was the most romantic night of her life. Such a simple gesture, sitting under the stars, but one that had become rarity long forgotten.

* * *

Today was Friday. Walter was babysitting, Astrid was with Charlie, and John was with Broyles. Peter and Olivia had been making out like a pair of teenagers in their tent, Peter's hands down Olivia's jeans. He listened as her breathing would hitch every now and again. His finger's moving slowly inside her. They had all the time in the world, might as well make it last. He pulled back when he felt her contract around his fingers. Watching as her eyes rolled back, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. Her entire body shuddered under him, and he thought it was the most beautiful sound, her moaning softly, moaning his name. He loved knowing that he could arouse her so.

It had been a while. A long while, for them. It had been a mutual decision to abstain from sex. They already had 3 unexpected children. Of course they love them to death, just like every parent would. But they wanted the next one to be planned, on their terms and not because they were completely driven by their hormones. Just because there was no sex, didn't mean there was no second and third base stuff. In fact, a LOT of third base stuff. After four months, sexually frustrated was an understatement.

They had certain 'days'. Walter would babysit the children, or Astrid, if he was off experimenting or harassing Broyles, and they would have the tent to themselves. They didn't exactly have a 'Do Not Disturb' sign. Walter and Astrid usually knew. According to Astrid, Peter and Olivia had 'looks'. They'd be having a conversation with Astrid, and/or including Walter, they'd share a look and next thing they're running off to their tent.

Charlie and John on the other hand, didn't know. John was the first to walk in on them. Luckily, he only caught them mid-strip. Charlie . . . wasn't so lucky. He saw more then he'd ever wanted to see of Peter, let alone Olivia. She was like a sister to him. Brother's aren't supposed to see their sister's naked, or with her husband touching her, or mid-orgasm. Astrid had teased him about it for months. It's safe to say that when they saw Walter babysitting, they didn't go near Peter and Olivia's tent.

* * *

"Hey, John." John and Peter gave their one armed hugs. You know, the "man" hugs.

"Long time, eh. How are you?" Peter asked,

"Pretty good." He smiled. "Broyles has got me going on the survivor searches. We're finding people everywhere. Once we manage to convince them that it's safe outside, we bring them back here. You wouldn't believe some of the places where they shacked-up. One family, a man and his two daughters, they'd been hiding out in their attic."

They hadn't really spoken in a few weeks. Each busy with their own. John with the survivors and Peter with Olivia and their children.

Though they had started out fighting, they had ended on the best of terms. The events of the past years had been good on them. John no longer had an issue with them. They were all able to sit down, have a friendly conversation and just be normal people.

"What about you? How's the new life treating you?" John asked as he turned to stand next to him. They watched Olivia

"I have a beautiful wife, two beautiful daughters and a handsome son. What more could I want?"

While Peter had been grateful for the events that led to his beautiful daughter, Ashley Rachel Bishop, he was over the moon when Connor Walter Bishop and Charlotte Astrid Bishop came into his life.

Olivia approached them, hearing the last bit.

"How about a niece or nephew?" Olivia smiled, nodding her head in the direction of Charlie and Astrid.

They watched as the couple spoke intently. The sudden change in Charlie's expression was obvious. He spun Astrid around before kissing her passionately.

"I'm not surprised it hadn't happened sooner."

"What do you think? A mini-Charlie, or a little Astrid?" Olivia asked, arms folded as she watched the scene in front of her.

"A Mini-Charlie. Oh god, what a nightmare that would be!" Peter laughed.

"I call dibs on godfather. If they'll let me."

"You can't call dibs on godfather!"

"I said if they let me." John defended.

"But you can't call dibs." Peter protested.

"I just did."

This was exactly the kind of calm, playful type of family relationship they all had. John had never been a part of a _real_ family before, nor Peter. They both relished the fact that once they fought, they now could joke around like all friends do.

"But you can't!" Peter turned to Olivia, seeking support. "Liv, help me out here?"

"You're on your own, Bishop." She grinned at them. "I'm the only women here. I'm _automatically_ godmother."

"That's not fair!"

"He did call dibs." Olivia agreed.

"If you wanted the job, you should have called first dibs."

"Fine." Peter huffed in defeat. He started walking away, Olivia by his side, but stopped and turned back to John, "But I'll spoil the kid rotten. I'll be the favourite uncle."

Olivia laughed, "Come on, Bishop. We've got plans."

"Plans, eh? What kind of plans?" John pried.

"We're gonna go start working on that fourth kid we'd been talking about." Olivia smirked up at Peter as she took his hand and led him away.

"Ahh! Too much information!" John whined, covering his ears.

"You asked!" Peter shouted, as they disappeared through the rows of tents towards their own.

"So, where too, m'lady?" Peter said,

"Well, I was thinking, since Walter's looking after the twins and Ashley, Astrid's already looking out for Ella and Katie, I was thinking, we take the blanket and have our own night under the stars."

"Yeah?"

"Mm hm." She nodded, leading him away.

* * *

It wasn't really a romantic dinner for two under the stars. Hell, string beans, tinned pineapple and cold tinned soup didn't really qualify as a romantic dinner. But to Peter and Olivia, it was everything. This was the first time in months that they could be alone, just the two of them. No children crying in their sleep. No nappies to change, or hungry little mouths to feed. No Walter wanting to experiment on everything that moved, or Ella and Katie's new found teenager-ness.

It was just them.

* * *

Olivia straddled Peter's waist, Peter lying on the blanket that covered the grass. She sucked on his pulse point, revelling in the moans it produced from Peter. His hands held her waist, his fingers dancing against her bare skin under her shirt. He pulled her mouth back to his, kissing her. Their tongues tangling as their passion grew and the kisses became heated. When Olivia ground against his body, Peter felt a small pinch in the middle of his back.

"Liv," His voice came out more as a breathy moan,

"Hmm," her fingers were toying with the hem of his shirt.

"Liv, I'm lying on a stick here." He managed to say,

Olivia immediately sat up, still straddling him, but giving him the space to reach under the blanket. His hand moved around for a few seconds before producing a stick the size of his hand with thorns covering it.

"Okay, _that_ hurt."

Olivia laughed. It was warm, a beautiful sound. Peter loved hearing her laugh. She always looked so carefree when she did.

In her moment of distraction, Peter managed to flip them, Peter hovering above Olivia, his erection pressed against her lower stomach.

Their clothing was discarded quickly, leaving nothing but them, their bare souls and the moon and stars. Peter took a moment to look at her. Her soft skin surrounded by a beautiful glow from the moonlight. Her hair fanned out around her head on the blanket, a golden halo against the pale white-pink of her skin. Her green eyes were bright in comparison. They were full of warmth, love and desire. She looked absolutely gorgeous. Peter wanted nothing more than to have her, all to himself.

He kissed down her body, briefly sucking at one of her nipples. The moans she made were already making certain anatomy parts strain.

Spreading her thighs as he got closer and closer to where she wanted him. He kissed her naval, the inside of her thigh, teasing her, avoiding where she wanted him to touch. When he did, her back arching off the blanket as his tongue licked and sucked at her. Her hands tangled in his hair, holding him against her.

Her climax came hard and quick, taking Peter by surprise. Back arched against the blanket, softly moaning his name.

Peter kissed up her body, feeling her heart beat inside her chest, kissing the tops of her breasts as she came down from her high.

He moved over her, hovering above her, positioning himself above her entrance.

"Ready?"

"Uh huh." She smiled up at him.

She was eager for another child. In all honesty, she wanted another mini-Peter. Two boys, two girls.

Her breath hitched as he entered her. Moaning against her neck, he started to move.

The calm of the night was filled with their moans, as they reached ecstasy, bliss, heaven, it had many names, but none seemed to describe exactly what they were feeling. Olivia's cries grew louder, rippling through the silence as they continued on into the night.

It was well after midnight when they stumbled back towards the tents. They'd become giddy, having finally been able to relieve the sexual tension properly. Olivia couldn't stop giggling, and Peter couldn't stop smiling at the sound of Olivia giggling. It was rare, but something Peter treasured, like it was air.

As they approached the tents, they managed to keep quiet. They found their tent with no trouble. They could hear Walter, singing. The twins were asleep, cuddled up together. Ashley was wrapped up in a worn blanket, curled against Walter's side as he sung.

When Walter caught the sight of Peter and Olivia, he carefully placed Ashley lying down, before quietly leaving the tent.

"How was your night out?" he pried. He used his 'I-know-what-you-were-doing . . . I-think' voice.

"It was good to have some alone time again."

But there were no suggestive comments, innuendos or giggles. Walter had, if it were even possible, become slightly saner. That or he had more lucid periods.

And with that, he tip-toed back to his tent.

* * *

Peter took his place to the right of the tent, Olivia to the left. Charlotte and Connor were snuggled between them, Ashley lying across the space above their heads.

Peter wrapped his arm over the twins, resting it against Olivia's hip. She fell asleep easily, worn out and satisfied.

Peter looked lovingly at her, stroking her cheek with his thumb,

"All I could want, is right here." He whispered into the night.

He saw a small smile grace Olivia's lip as they both fell into a peaceful slumber.

Neither knew what the future would hold. Whether they would eventually have a fourth child. Whether they or anyone else would actual survive to see the rebuilding of their civilisation.

But Peter didn't care.

He was happy, right then and there.

THE END

* * *

**A/N: anyone find the paragraph worth of **_**'Friends'**_** reference? **

**I am so sad this has ended. Originally I had planned for the story to be about 10 chapters for each month (hence 'In 10 Months'), but with all those encouraging reviews, I had to keep going :) **

**Is it too much to ask for a final review? **

**I hope you all enjoyed it :)**

**~LGW **


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